Strange Duet
by Nuclear Eggs
Summary: Miku is a human who runs into a vampiric Luka one night. That would have been okay, if it wasn't for the fact that everything supernatural seems to be converging on them. Why can't things just be normal?
1. Part 1

The first time Miku saw a vampire and knew it was when she was six years old. She had been walking with her father and mother down the street to the old fashioned sweet shop down the corner to buy some sweets - brightly colored candy bars and colorful hard gobstoppers - Miku had been a good girl that day. She had brought home an A+ on her report card on her very first semester of school, so her parents were rewarding her, and Miku tripped down the sidewalk holding onto the warm hands of her father and mother, until she heard a commotion to her left.

Curious, she turned her head, and although her parents moved to cover her eyes and ears, she saw it and heard it, a quick glimpse that was terrifying, a shock to her innocent senses.

What she had seen were men dressed in crisp government navy blue vests, surrounding a man, a frail, weak, yet beautiful man who was sobbing quietly, and that sob turned into screaming, howling, a loud wail as the sunlight hit his bare flesh. Miku had begun to see his skin crumble to blackness, dust and ash in the sunbeams, had begun to see his face split apart, and then her parents carried her up and whisked her home.

The sight of it always stayed in her mind, however. Miku's parents quietly explained to her that what she had seen was a vampire.

"They are very bad people," said her mother to Miku, sternly, and Miku, too terrified by the memory of the beautiful face crumbling apart, nodded and took her mother's following words to heart: "Never, ever talk to them. Never, ever let them get near you."

Miku never got her candy that day, although the event had chased all thoughts of sweets and sunshine out of her mind. However, the years passed and she began to forget; vampires became a thing taught in schools, something distant and separate from her own life. There was something about being taught such things in school that lent it an academic, uninteresting air. The warning signs of vampires put up on the walls of the school, the private lesson given to the girls of the school by a female teacher about resisting the lure that the girls were beginning to understand on the fringes of their thoughts, resisting the cold beauty and delicate faces, the lovely manners and angelic voices that vampires possessed, the news reports that cropped up every so often about the government Seraphims taking into custody a vampire with ambitions of spreading the taint...none of it permeated fully into Miku's mind. She was ignorant despite being learned.

So Miku read vampire romance novels like everyone else, because there was a sort of forbidden allure to it (despite vampire romances being very popular, a whole genre by itself, not forbidden at all). She of course kept a good line between fantasy and reality, the facts drummed into her by school and parents - vampires were bloodsuckers, dangerous ones who preyed upon humanity. Everyone carried a small government-issued cross, enchanted by magically-inclined government Seraphims, that could repel vampires. Everyone knew the basic rules - never invite vampires into your home, if one were to meet a friendly vampire, direct him or her to the government blood providers, to the supermarket, or even to the blood whores; basically just get the vampire away from you as fast as possible.

Of course, schools also taught students how to defend themselves against other supernaturals such as werewolves and fairies and ghosts and demons and other such things, so the supernatural became the mundane in that way.

The years passed like so, the memory of the fearsome, disintegrating man in sunlight fading like an old photograph, and then high school rolled around, bringing along with it new friends, more homework, and more worries.

However, one particular day marked the beginning of a whole new set of worries for Miku.

It was at night, and Miku was walking quickly down a street in the city back from the old theater, carrying her backpack. She had been sick the day of the original field trip there, and had to make up the assignment over the weekend. Thankfully, the theater had still been showing the play, some operatic drama about a deformed girl from a freakshow, and Miku had paid attention and taken notes accordingly, even though personally, she wasn't too big a fan of the ending.

The streetlamps cast long shadows on the street, and it was completely quiet, Miku's footsteps loud and echoing on the clean pavement. Then, slightly to her left, she saw her.

A beautiful woman was standing, alone, in one of the more shadowed sides of the streets, her hair hiding her eyes, her skin so pale it seemed almost alabaster in the moonlight, her figure well-proportioned, her clothes expensive and well-made. Despite herself, Miku felt the breath knocked out of her body; the woman was just that beautiful.

"Ah..." Miku said, before she could stop herself, and the woman raised her eyes and stared at Miku.

Miku was immediately struck by the woman's face, perfectly sculpted as though it had come from a master, doll-like in beauty. Despite all that however, Miku's eyes focused on the tiny glint of fangs.

Her eyes widened and she took a step back, and before she could run, before she could scream, the vampire was on her. She no longer resembled an angel, as her face was contorted in hunger, and no angels had fangs.

"Don't!" Miku gasped, fingers scrabbling in her pocket for a cross as she desperately tried to fight the woman back. She prayed for a Seraphim to come by, or even an Ishim, unreliable as they may be. Why couldn't she find the cross? Even though everyone with sense carried crosses with them on their neck, Miku was stupid, kept it in her pocket, which seemed altogether too big now, her fingers clumsy; she never thought that she of all people would be attacked.

The vampire paused right before impact. "Do...you know...where the blood whores are? I was trying to ask you earlier but you were screaming and you couldn't hear me."

_Eh? _Miku paused and stared at the vampire askance. She had been taught that to look straight at a vampire was a recipe for disaster: if they don't render you useless and stammering with their inhuman beauty, they leave you open to their brainwashing. Miku's class had shown her videos of the results of these brainwashings, and they were not pretty.

"The blood whores," repeated the vampire.

"Th-the government blood providers are over in Broome," Miku recited numbly. "You can also find them in various supermarkets...barring that...you can get steaks and that could stave off your hunger for a-"

"I can't go to the government," said the vampire, agitated. "I'm too hungry for steaks. _Please_, I have to get a blood whore, where are they?"

Miku had no idea where the blood whores were and the vampire's barely restrained, hungry voice was frightening, intense; Miku could tell that it was just barely trying to hold back its hunger. "I don't know!" Miku said, feeling the sting of tears behind her eyes.

The vampire hissed and mumbled something annoyed and unintelligible. Miku noticed that its eyes were red and a shiver of fear ran down her spine; vampiric eyes change color from the vampire's natural-born eye color to red when they were especially hungry. Miku felt the full danger of her situation crash down upon her. She had to escape, she had to _run_, run back to her house, but she can't turn her back and run - the vampire could easily outrun her, overpower her, take her blood, kill her or worse, make Miku its thrall, its slave.

"I'm sorry! I don't know," Miku took a trembling step backwards. "I ne-never got taught where and none of my friends know..."

The vampire turned its head before looking straight up at Miku and then looking away again. It was shaking, trembling - about to attack.

Miku gasped and started running away before she even realized she was. Her shoes echoed down the pavement, the maddened vampire running after her. Miku was screaming, but no one heard; how could the city be so deserted? Miku realized the hopelessness of her situation when the vampire easily caught up to her a few seconds after she started running, tackling her from behind. Miku fell on the ground and immediately started squirming and struggling, her hands pushing the vampire's cold face away from her. The vampire's mouth was open, fangs exposed, and in the struggle, the fang drew blood from Miku's hand.

Everything seemed to stop for that one moment as Miku stared at the small cut in her hand - at first innocuous, a small whitish cut, before it began to fill, turning red with blood, and then a single drop of it fell onto the pavement. The vampire's eyes traced its path and it took a deep breath before plunging its fangs into Miku's neck.

Miku froze. The violation seemed unbearable. She was taught that in this situation, it was best to stay still - thrashing about may cause the fangs to stray, to cut your artery, resulting in death. She felt her body relaxing, a small sense of elevation coming over her mind. In time the bite actually felt good; Miku recognized this as an effect of the drug that vampires produced from their fangs to make their victims stop struggling, which made the feeding process easier.

_"Do not feel ashamed by thinking that the sensation is...pleasurable," said their teacher, carefully. "It's natural, a result of the venom. It is not your fault."_

_The classroom erupted in immature giggles. There was inevitable innuendo to be derived from vampire bites - they were so sexually charged._

Sexually charged indeed. Miku couldn't help but to squirm a little. No wonder vampires were the subjects of so many romances, she thought addledly. If they could make people feel this excited from a bite.

The vampire pulled its fangs out roughly, eliciting a sharp gasp from Miku. Its eyes turned a cold blue and all at once the fear rushed back into Miku's mind. She didn't want to look at her own neck - the dull red blood on the vampire's fangs told enough. The vampire got off of Miku before, after some time, pulling her up. Miku's knees were weak and her mind was a little fuzzy; apparently the vampire took a lot. She leaned against the wall and tried to rest, but she couldn't; the vampire was still there, after all.

"I...am sorry," said the vampire after some time.

Miku wiped at her eyes a little and said nothing; what could she say? She had just gotten her blood sucked. She suddenly felt a deep shame invade her mind - she couldn't tell anyone this. Getting blood sucked...Miku touched her neck anxiously and felt a quick, sharp feeling of pain when her fingers found the puncture marks on the side of her neck. She had just gotten her _blood_ sucked. Miku, ordinary student, had just had this horrifying..._thing_happen to her.

The vampire glanced up at Miku and then away. "It's..not like me to act this way," it said. "I was...very hungry."

"I told you where the government blood suppliers were," Miku mumbled. "W-why couldn't you have just gone to them? I..." She felt tears well up in her eyes and she rubbed at them ineffectually.

"I can't go to the government," said the vampire. "It's hard to explain, they won't let me drink from the suppliers anymore."

Hard to explain? As if. There were only a few ways a vampire would get barred from the blood suppliers, and the most common way was...Miku felt another burst of horror within her. The vampire before her had killed someone by drinking too much blood. She could just imagine it - the ravenous monster before her sucking and sucking away at the blood of the government blood suppliers, driven too insane by bloodlust to be restrained by the Seraphims, too strengthened by the blood for the crosses and magic to be effectual. A vampire who had drunk a lot of blood was nigh invulnerable to anything, so after a certain point had been reached, it would be unstoppable.

Miku trembled and tried to take another step back, but as she was leaning against the wall, she couldn't. "...oh."

"Yes," said the vampire. "S-so you do understand now, right?" The vampire turned a pleading gaze back at Miku, and Miku looked away. "I couldn't...I couldn't help myself. I was too hungry. I'm sorry."

Apparently this vampire was still quite new if it was apologizing to humans for its hunger. Miku felt a little, a tiny little, of her anger soften - in the vampire simulations in class, where a Seraphim would come in and temporarily magick a person in the class to 'think' and 'feel' like a vampire (the purpose of this being that if the unthinkable happened one day, people would be better educated, more prepared if they ever became infected by the taint), the bloodlust that took over Miku was overwhelming. "Oh."

"So...sorry," the vampire mumbled, sounding hideously guilty.

Miku felt hot anger bubble up in her chest - what right did the vampire have to sound so miserable? Miku was the one who just got blood sucked against her will.

"What's your name?" she demanded. With a vampire's name, Miku could look it up on the internet. The government kept profiles on each vampire and one could report offenses on the site, which Miku had every intent of doing. With one death of a government blood supplier already on the vampire's rap list, this new bloodsucking attack might push the vampire over to 'dangerous' territory, needing to be put down by the Seraphim and Ishim.

The vampire gave a guilty start and looked up. "Luka Megurine. Of House Karnstein."

"Luka," Miku rolled the name around in her mouth for a few moments before nodding. "I see. Well, I'll be reporting this to the-"

"No!" Luka's eyes shot open. "Don't!"

"You _attacked _me!" Miku said. "Why shouldn't I?"

"I don't want to become a criminal," Luka pleaded. "I'll do anything. Don't turn me in."

Miku scoffed. "Who trusts a Karnstein?" House Karnstein was a rather duplicitous group of backstabbers and liars, Miku knew - to trust one was tantamount to signing a suicide pact.

"W-well, I'm still a fledgling anyway," Luka mumbled. "So I'm not really vampire-like yet. But I don't want to die yet. Please," she looked up at Miku, who was still studiously not looking at her, "I'll do _anything_. Come on. Just don't turn me in."

"..._anything_?" Miku asked.

Luka nodded eagerly, her hands clasped together. "Yes! Anything you want! I'll be your bodyguard, a spy, a cook, I'll even do your _homework _for you, just don't turn me in."

Miku stared past her. Luka seemed quite desperate...how odd considering how vampires are prideful creatures. Perhaps what had happened with the government blood suppliers had been worse than what Miku thought. She sighed, heavily. Miku didn't especially want to become involved with a vampire, but she couldn't let this whole getting her blood sucked thing go either. The puncture marks would heal, but Miku still remembered the animal terror that had gripped her, the fear, how frightening and powerful Luka had been.

"...I don't know," Miku said. "Look...I have to go home. Don't follow me."

"You won't turn me in, right?" asked Luka, looking quite terrified. "Please. I told you I'll do anything."

"I won't turn you in," Miku sighed. "If anything comes up, I'll...look for you I guess. Where...are you usually?"

"Ah," Luka blinked. "I just moved in so I'm...wherever. But if you need me, just...look around in the blood covens, I...should be in there." She paused, seeming to think over that. "Or not."

"I can't go to a blood coven," said Miku, scandalized. "I'm human. I'll get my blood sucked out!"

Luka frowned. "W-well, where do you live?"

"Why do you want to know?" Miku asked.

"It's not like I can get in without an invite," Luka said. "It's just so that if you need me I can be there."

There was something perverse about this. Miku, not quite ready to give her address to a Karnstein vampire who attacked her, turned away. "I'm sure your nose can find me."

* * *

**Couldn't resist, new story XDDD For those wondering, the name Karnstein is from the vampire book Carmilla :D **


	2. Chapter 2

"Luka Megurine of House Karnstein," Miku read, sitting at her computer. It was night, and she was in her room, dressed in pajama pants and a comfortable white cotton shirt, hair still wet from her shower. She was looking up the vampire who bit her tonight. Miku frowned at the mere thought of it. How _disgusting_. She couldn't believe that she actually got bitten by a vampire, and she found herself repeatedly looking at her neck in the mirror, at those two tiny puncture marks.

Immediately anger filled Miku's head and heart, anger at her violation, anger at what happened to her, anger that this event now set her out as different from her peers, anger that such a dirty, low thing happened to her. She resolutely scrolled down the page and her cursor hovered over the 'report an offense' button.

She stared at it for what seemed like a long while, remembering everything - Luka attacking her, Luka sucking her blood, Luka apologizing, Luka's fear at being reported. Miku swallowed and willed herself to click, but for some reason, her finger wouldn't respond.

With a sigh, Miku scrolled back up and looked at Luka's information. She was turned at the age of seventeen three years ago. Her previous offenses...Miku clicked and was surprised to find that the page was entirely blank.

That can't be; Miku's brow furrowed. Duplicitous as Karnstein vampires may be, they would never lie when it came to disadvantaging themselves. Luka had no reason to avoid the government blood suppliers if she didn't have any previous offenses with the government. It was unlikely that she would attack Miku randomly, considering her very real fear afterward. Miku shrugged. Perhaps Luka made her offense recently and the site hadn't yet been updated - with so many vampires in the world, it took a while for information to get onto the database.

Miku sighed and leaned back in her chair. She would spare Luka, she decided. It brought her no real gain to send her to the not-so-tender whims of the Seraphims, especially not after Luka's very real and desperate fear. A vampire begging a human for mercy...now that didn't happen often. Miku couldn't help chuckling a little to herself. She glanced one last time at the database entry on Luka.

"I better not see you again," she whispered, and then she shut off her computer.

-o-o-o-

School was uneventful. A quick dash of makeup on her neck, and the puncture marks were covered. Miku was eating her lunch - a ham and cheese sandwich - while listening to her friends talk.

Miku's friends were good people, all quite ordinary. There was Len, his twin sister Rin, the serious and quiet Lily, and the exuberant and bright Yukari.

They were talking about the recent reports of ghostly happenings downtown. Miku was only paying minimal attention, because her mind was still focused on what happened to her last night. The bite mark felt itchy and Miku resisted the urge to scratch it.

"Stupid ghosts," Lily sighed. "I mean, why do they even do those things, anyways?"

"If I was dead and bored and had nothing else to do, I'd probably fly people around and scare them too," said Rin, grinning a little.

"What's wrong, Miku?" asked Yukari, jolting Miku out of her stupor.

"Huh? What?" Miku blinked and looked around.

"You're kindth of out of ith," said Len, his voice muffled by his turkey sandwich. "Somethin wrong?"

No way Miku could tell them about last night. She felt herself blush at the memory of it. "Uh...nothing's wrong."

"You're blushing," said Lily.

"Whoa!" Yukari gasped. "Miku, don't tell me...you got a boyfriend?"

Len nearly choked on his cheetos. "What!?"

"No, no," said Miku, hastily. "Nothing like that. Just thinking about vampires."

"Ah," Lily rolled her eyes. "What's with people these days and fantasizing about vampires?"

"People _love _vampires," said Rin. "I mean, there are so many corny vampire romance novels out there."

"What's so great about vampires," Len muttered in a dark tone, shooting glances at Miku every now and then. "I mean, I guess they look pretty, but they run around drinking blood."

Yukari smiled at Miku. "Vampires, huh? Well, they are pretty cute. Ah..." Yukari sighed. "They're so perfect..."

"Uh, no," said Lily. "They are _not _perfect. They just _look _pretty. Sure, they're strong and fast and getting bitten by them feels good, but personally, they're far from being the coolest supernatural out there."

"Exactly!" Len chimed in. "_Finally_, someone who doesn't have a hard-on for vampires! High five, Lily!"

"What?" Yukari stared at Lily and Len. "How could they possibly be boring?"

"Besides, you guys should really stop treating supernaturals as some kind of...fictional being," Len said. "They're people too, you know."

"Sheesh Len," said Rin. "I mean, it's not like we ever see them, so it's _like _they're not real."

Miku looked down at her sandwich and nodded. "Yeah...not like any of us can ever meet anything supernatural."

"Exactly," said Rin.

-o-o-o-

The days passed, slow, boring, ordinary - Miku's puncture marks healed and she did not hear from Luka, so she thought that perhaps the vampire had forgotten her and left her to go on with her ordinary life. And with a sense of relief, Miku happily plunged back into the world of homework, tests, and eating junk food while watching reality TV shows.

It was a shame then that all of that ordinary was shattered a few months later.

The hints had been there early on - the fouler weather, for one, the clouds gray and the skies overcast. The fog that permeated the town, impeded vision to the point where people disappeared into the haze after little more than ten steps. A few Seraphim were dispatched to monitor the situation and they discovered nothing especially extraordinary, after going through the normal battery of tests for environmental supernatural symptoms.

Indeed, Miku herself thought that all of the fog would clear up, but she was proven wrong when she was talking with Lily outside of school.

Lily was commenting on the weather when the top half of her face was sliced off.

Literally sliced off.

Miku could do nothing but stare as the top half of Lily's face sailed in a graceful arc through the air, leaking blood, gray pieces of brain flying out in disgusting globules, half of her hair still on her head, her eyes wide open, bulging, teeth and shattered bone. Lily's body rocked a little before falling over on the ground, dead.

Miku was too terrified, confused, to move. What just happened? Lily was dead? How could that be...Miku had just been talking to her. There was no way she could really be dead, but the evidence of it was right in front of Miku's eyes - the oozing brains, the red blood soaking into a puddle underneath Lily's body.

"Oh my god," Miku whispered and she backed up. Whatever killed Lily was just as likely to kill her too. Her and Lily seemed to be the only people around, as everything else was hidden by fog, the rest of the world locked away by the _unknown_ in the fog. Miku fell to her knees and stared at Lily's body and waited for her own death, her eyes squeezed shut, tears spilling - both tears at Lily's death (that Miku still could not accept, could not believe, she had been alive, she had been there, she had been _talking about the goddamn weather_, how could she be _dead_?) and tears at her own fate.

A dark shadow stepped out from the fog and Miku looked up. Her dulled mind slowly realized that the thing that stood before her was a genie, perhaps a vengeful one that had escaped from its lantern, a shadowy, smoke-made thing. It had some control over the weather, which perhaps explained the fog - genies could not manifest without fog or a smoke-like substance. Perhaps someone in the town set it free, but...not that it mattered now.

Miku could see the vague, smokelike form raise what seemed to be a hand, a scythed hand.

Miku put her head on the ground and prepared herself to die.

Which was why, a few minutes later, Miku realized that she wasn't dead yet. She looked up.

The genie's form was shifting, pulling into a small brass jar held by two vaguely familiar hands. Miku eyes slowly followed the hands to clean dark brown sleeves with yellow bands on the cuffs, drew up to the stiff dark blue-banded collar, up to the face, which was hauntingly beautiful and Miku realized with a jolt that it was Luka Megurine.

By the time the genie had been fully sucked into the jar, the fog was beginning to thin, and Luka sighed and put the lid on. She turned to Miku, who was still lying on the ground, tears running down her face, pale with fear.

"Are you okay?" Luka asked, and she offered a hand.

Miku ignored it and stood up, shakily. She did not know what had just happened. It was too much for her mind to process. Why was there a genie trying to kill her in the first place? Miku did nothing wrong, and she stared numbly at Lily's body.

"Lily's...dead," said Miku in a small voice.

Luka walked over to Lily's body and knelt down next to it. "No, she's still alive."

"...what?" Miku said, stupidly. She pointed at the top half of Lily's head, lying on the ground, blood and brains. "...but...her head..."

"Oh no," said Luka, "us vampires are stronger than that."

"...Lily's a vampire?" Miku said, completely confused. "But...she was talking with us! In daytime! She can't be a vampire! You're lying!" Miku whirled at Luka and glared at her. "This is all your fault! Why are you even here?! You...you creepy bloodsucker!"

Luka looked pained. "I...I'm sorry. I was trying to protect you."

"Who said I needed your protection?" Miku fumed.

"What?" Luka frowned. "Is that what you say to the person who just _saved your life_? I told you I'm in your debt! When the fog started gathering, I thought you might need some protection!"

Miku did not want to dwell on the fact that this vampire might have been following around, _stalking her_, for the past few days, so she hastily changed the subject.

"Anyways!" Miku turned her attention back to Lily. "She can't be a vampire...Lily's my friend! My friend can't be a vampire," Miku's voice was growing hysterical. "She's dead!"

"She's undead," Luka said, testily. "Look, she's already regenerating."

Miku couldn't deny that Luka was right - Lily's jaw was reassembling.

"...how?" Miku said, numbly. "Lily was my friend. She was out in daytime. She's not a vampire. She can't be a vampire..."

"Umm," Luka looked down at the small brass jar before looking up at Miku. "Walk with me. I'll try to explain everything."

-o-o-o-

The fog over the Vanderlyn District of the city was beginning to dissipate, although the weather was still overcast; that was probably why Luka was able to be up and about, instead of sleeping inside her darkened home or wherever she hung out during the day.

"I don't know this 'Lily' person personally," said Luka, "but she's definitely a dhampir." She flicked a strand of beautiful pink hair out of her face - even a gesture like that done by a vampire was elegant and graceful.

"A...dhampir?" Miku echoed. That was a term that she had never heard of before. 'Wh-what kind of a vampire is a dhampir?"

"Half vampire, half human," said Luka. "The result of a union between a vampire and a human...although dhampirs can also be created by the normal turning process, except with less of the blood given. They are very uncommon. Not surprised that you haven't heard of them." Her voice was casual, a little bit _too _casual - Miku found herself feeling a small flicker of resentment within her, although worry and wonder about Lily overwhelmed that.

"Wh-what do dhampirs do?" Miku asked. "Do they have any powers? Other than regeneration. Do they drink blood?"

The thought of Lily drinking someone's blood seemed all too natural for Miku's comfort - she could just imagine it, Lily brushing her long blonde hair out of her face, exposing her fangs...Miku shuddered. She had joked around with her friends about Lily being a vampire due to her pale complexion, but she had never actually thought that Lily would actually _be _a vampire...or a dhampir for that matter.

Luka looked pensive. "I don't think they necessarily have to drink blood. As for their powers, I have met a few dhampirs before. They are noticeably weaker than vampires," Luka's voice was arrogantly prideful, "although sunlight has little to no effect on them, and neither do enchanted crosses. They are endowed with higher than human strength, faster than human speed, regeneration, and depending on what House vampire fathered them, a variety of other little power trinkets...oh, and they can live for quite a while," Luka shrugged. "Although they're no match for _actual _vampires."

"...ah," said Miku, and she looked up at the sky. She was feeling so confused. A small part of her was a little rankled by Luka's arrogant dismissal of dhampirs and by extension, humans, but she decided to not pursue the matter - it was true that vampires had powers that extended far beyond the powers of humans, after all, and no amount of protest would change that. "I see."

"Are you alright?" Luka asked, looking over Miku again. Miku shuddered; she could almost feel Luka raking her gaze up and down her body. All at once, the heavy shame from when Luka drank her blood rushed back, and Miku felt that heavy, essential feeling of anger and disgust wash over her.

"Fine!" said Miku loudly. "Stop _looking _at me."

Luka, looking a little hurt, angry, and confused all at once, nodded and turned her gaze away.

They walked on in heavy silence for a while before Miku spoke up. "So why was there some genie trying to attack me?"

"I think that the genie was after Lily," said Luka. "You were just in the way. Maybe her vampire parent wanted her dead. Although dhampirs are so uncommon, not many people know how to do away with them."

"And...you do?" Miku asked.

"Of course," said Luka, her voice proud again. "Us Karnsteins are a noble lineage. We know everything."

Miku sighed. "Yeah right."

"Hey!" Luka sounded affronted. "Don't insult us. You're nothing more than a human anyways."

"You used to be human too," Miku pointed out.

Luka bit her lip and looked down. "I suppose so, but that was so long ago. And besides, I'm not a human anymore. And you don't know _anything _about us vampires."

"I didn't spare you from the Seraphim to put up with this," Miku snapped. "Why are you still hanging around with me then?"

"I'm trying to protect you," said Luka, with exaggerated patience. "I'm not sure if you understand, but you live in a _hotbed _of supernatural activity, I-"

"Why?!" Miku yelled. "I don't want your protection! I want to be normal! Just forget about me, you...bloodsucking _creep_! Just stay away from me! I never asked for vampire protection! I have the Seraphim for that!"

Luka stared at her before her beautiful face set into a frown. Miku still wasn't looking directly at her, but she still shuddered - the force of Luka's features accentuated the anger in the frown even more. "Look, human. I don't especially want to feel like this either, but I just feel...drawn to you, alright?"

'_Drawn _to me?" Miku was horrified. "What? You want to make me into your...into your..." Miku couldn't bring herself to say the words.

In this world, there were a few vampires who get 'drawn' to a certain human. Not many people could explain the phenomenon, but it was nothing that Miku wanted; the whole thing brought with it so many repercussions. Apparently, Miku's blood had been too delicious for this particular vampire to stop at just one forced feeding, and Miku, afraid, backed away, a hand protectively, and uselessly, covering her neck.

"I don't want to become your blood-slave," she said, still unable to bring herself to say the real name of what the vampire intended her fate to become. "Drink someone else's...n-not me. Not me, okay?!"

Luka looked at Miku, her eyes darkening. She looked coldly aristocratic, as all vampires do. "Idiot. You humans really don't know anything at all."

"What's there to know about!?" Miku''s voice was becoming increasingly hysteric. "You w-want me to...I don't want that! I don't need your stupid 'protection' or anything! Get away from me! I just want to live a normal life!"

Luka actually hissed and her fangs appeared for a brief moment, a mere flash before they retracted, and then she looked away. "Some way to repay the person who saved you. Humans really are vulgar creatures. Listen up," Luka addressed Miku again. "I won't hurt you. I feel like I owe a sort of debt for you because you didn't report me. Do you really think that after this, your life is going to be left alone from supernatural influence? Please. You're going to have to go to school, knowing that your friend is a dhampir, and since she's still alive, do you really think that the people trying to kill her will stop there? You're going to be in danger all the time. I thought it was strange when I sensed the smell of another vampire on you, but apparently it was the smell of your dhampir friend."

"I can just report this to the Seraphim," mumbled Miku, dazed.

Luka gave out a short, disdainful laugh. "Sure, and your friend will be carted away to the facilities to be experimented on for being a dhampir. The Seraphim can't do anything if they can't even catch a rather elementary genie. Humans are useless."

"Shut up!" Miku put her hands to her head as her world crashed down around her. She didn't want to believe Luka's words, but they were true - Lily really was a dhampir, and she will be in danger...despite everything, Lily was still Miku's friend, and Miku could not bring herself to leave Lily to her fate, murky as it may be. She didn't want to admit that she may in the end require the help of the vampire who fed on her.

Luka leaned back against the wall and looked at Miku before looking away. "Just telling the truth."

"So...in return for this protection," Miku said, numbly, "you...want to drink my blood."

Luka sighed and looked up. "Yes. I think that another sip of blood would be adequate in return for my protecting you during the duration of all this."

"Don't protect me," Miku protested. "Protect Lily. She's the one in danger."

Luka scratched the back of her head and sighed and walked over to Miku. "Fine, I'll do my best to protect you two," she said.

"I can still report you to the Seraphim," Miku mumbled.

Luka's gaze hardened. "You can do that, but your friend would die, and you would die with her."

Miku really had nowhere else to turn but this vampire for help. She felt revulsion rock up her spine again. She never thought that she would do this, but she never thought that Lily was a dhampir and she never thought that she would ever meet a vampire.

_This is for Lily_, Miku told herself as she offered her neck. Luka put one hand on Miku's shoulder and brushed back Miku's hair slowly and caressingly, like a lover would, and Miku shivered as she felt Luka's cool breath on her neck, and then Luka pushed Miku against the wall and took her blood. Miku's world spun and she gasped as the vampiric venom worked its way through her bloodstream, felt her knees weaken and her heartbeat accelerate, the odd pleasurable feeling of it all making Miku's head swim in a miasmic haze. _For Lily._


	3. Chapter 3

Lily returned the next day at school looking completely normal, as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. She greeted everyone normally and for all intents and purposes seemed like the ordinary girl that Miku thought she was.

But she wasn't. She was a dhampir. Miku couldn't help but to stare at Lily, analyzing every aspect of her appearance and behavior throughout class, and she was reprimanded by the teacher more than once for letting her attention stray from class. During lunch and break, Miku was quiet, focusing all of her attention on Lily, until after school when Lily quietly told Miku that she would like to talk to her privately.

Under normal circumstances, Miku would have been happy to go with her friend, but today, things seemed different. Lily's eyes now held a trace of the vampiric in them, and her pale skin and haughty mien all seemed to be the result of something supernatural. Plus, Miku was aware that Luka was probably watching the two of them - it was still overcast. Miku shuddered and her puncture marks, hidden by makeup, seemed to itch.

Miku agreed to go with her friend nonetheless, though, and Lily dragged her around to the back.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," said Lily, and she sighed and ran a hand through her long, blonde hair. "I wanted to keep it secret, but I guess after this I can't really, anymore. I'm a dhampir."

"I know," said Miku.

Lily smiled humorlessly. "Ah yes, I suppose it was a bit of a shock to see me alive again, but...how did you survive? I mean, that particular genie had been hounding me for days," her gaze grew serious. "It's very inconvenient because us dhampirs don't die that way and I have to lie on the floor in the middle of fog, but...I mean...you're not a dhampir, are you?" Lily looked a little hopeful as she looked at Miku's face - apparently hoping against hope that she wasn't alone.

Miku shook her head. "No, I'm not a dhampir. Wait, so this isn't the first time it happened? How could you deal with practically dying every day so...easily?"

"My mother warned me about my father," said Lily. She looked down at her hands. "I got used to the idea of being...hounded all the time. So it was surprising that whoever my father was is only trying to kill me now," Lily shrugged. "Anyways, how did you survive?"

Miku hesitated briefly before shaking her head and sighing. To hell with it. Might as well confess everything to this dhampir. "I know a vampire and she saved me."

"_You_ know a vampire?" Lily's eyes widened. "Miku, they're dangerous. Why are you even getting _involved_ with them?!" Her voice was aghast. "I _hate _vampires," Lily's eyes were aflame with anger. "They're nothing more than crazy monsters!"

"I must say I disagree," said a calm, musical voice that emanated from the direction of the bushes. Lily whirled to look at the intruder, but Miku sighed. It was Luka. Miku could recognize her voice easily now.

"A...vampire," Lily stammered, looking ill at ease. "Who are you?"

"As you said, a vampire," said Luka coldly. "Now stay still, half-breed. You're lucky to be alive. A little lower and you would have died. Dhampirs die from decapitation like everyone else."

"Shut up!" Lily flared up, and Miku winced. Not that she could blame Lily too much – Luka was acting rather haughty.

"What are you doing here, Luka," Miku sighed. "I told you to protect Lily, not insult her."

"I don't need a vampire's protection," Lily snapped at Miku. "When did you tell a vampire to protect me in the first place, anyways? Don't you think you should have asked me first?"

"You were dying at the time!" Miku said, putting her fingers to her forehead. "I was panicked! I was trying to protect you."

"And you told a _vampire _to protect me?!" Lily's voice was aghast.

Luka looked over at Miku and then at Lily. "Will you be quiet? I captured the genie so it won't be bothering you anymore, except..." Luka's face was set in a frown. "I don't think that the attacks against you will end there."

"I don't want your help!" Lily blurted out. "I can deal with this on my own. This is my own problem. Who said that the two of you could butt in like this? It's none of your business."

"Some friend you are," said Luka, her voice icy.

"Quiet, Luka," said Miku. Luka grumbled and obediently quieted.

Lily blinked at the two of them, looking a little puzzled - apparently because of the display of obedience from the vampire to the human.

"I'm worried about you, Lily," said Miku, her voice taking on a pleading tone. "We've known each other since we were kids. And I think after I almost died thanks to that genie...this is already my business."

"Fine," said Lily, grudgingly, looking a little guilty. "But...I don't see why we have to have that vampire with us."

"So shortsighted," Luka sighed. "There's no way a dhampir and a human can take on a vampire strong enough to father a dhampir in the first place. Face it, you need my help."

"Why are you helping us in the first place?" Lily asked. "No vampire is so selfless as to sacrifice their _oh-so-valuable_time to help a half breed and a human. What do you want?"

Luka opened her mouth and then closed it and then opened it again. "I..."

"Let me guess," said Lily "You want to feed off of our blood after this is done. Well, don't even try."

"Oh _please_," Luka scoffed. "I wouldn't drink your blood even if you paid me."

"It doesn't matter, you two," said Miku. "Look, let's just work together. I know that Luka isn't entirely trustworthy, but it's too late to kick her out. If she does anything suspicious, I promise you that you won't have to see her again. I have something on her."

Lily looked at Miku for a moment. "Wow Miku, since when did you start blackmailing vampires? What'd she do to you?" Lily turned her glare back at Luka. "Hey, did you hurt my friend?"

Luka's blue eyes were starting to have a little hint of red in them, so Miku decided to stop this now.

"Don't worry about it, Lily," she said in her best reassuring voice. "She didn't hurt me. I just know something about her that the Seraphim would be interested to hear."

"Fine, fine," Lily waved her hand irritably. "Well then, how old is this vampire? You know that the older a vampire is, the stronger it gets. I want to know if we have a weak fledgling with us or someone that could actually, you know, _be useful_instead of strutting around giving herself airs."

Before Luka could answer, Miku spoke up. "She's a three year old vampire."

There was a long silence that was broken by the sound of Lily's laughter.

"Three years old!" Lily was shaking her head and laughing. "Pathetic!"

Luka hissed. "A three year old vampire is more than strong enough to defeat a dhampir."

"Certainly not strong enough to defeat a vampire old enough to father a dhampir," said Lily.

Miku was silent. Lily did have a point - if Luka really was a fledgling, then her strength would be low compared to the older vampires as she was still more human than vampire, in a way. Perhaps Miku had been too hasty in agreeing to this and allowing Luka to drink her blood for the _second_time, as if once wasn't bad enough. In fact, all of this was happening too fast for Miku's comfort - just a few weeks ago she had been an ordinary girl, and then she met Luka, and now she was thrown into all this. Perhaps it would be easier to have just gone home and be ignorant, but considering how the genie tried to kill her and how Luka sucked her blood not once but twice, not to mention Lily being a dhampir, and now Miku was beginning to see that there was no escape from this - she was already too entangled to escape.

-o-o-o-

Miku had to admit that she had never been in a place like this before.

All around her were vampires; Miku could tell by the sheer inhuman beauty in each of their faces and bodies. Loud dance music with husky female vocals pounded into her head, and she could see that a few vampires held a few shots of red liquid in their hands that could only be blood. There was a sort of atmosphere in this place, slinky and unsettling, with its ghoul bartender and the vampires wearing clothes that ranged all over the map; one person wore a hood, mask, and cloak...another vampire wore only duct tape.

Miku gulped. She felt as though she was the only human in the place. Luka had assured her that it was not uncommon for there to be humans and dhampirs in these sorts of places, but looking around, Miku only ever saw perfect vampire faces, and no human ones. Luka had a cold arm around Miku's shoulder, and Miku's puncture marks were not hidden; both of those were probably enough to mark Miku as Luka's.

Of course, Miku did not especially want to be the companion of a vampire in some vampire nightclub ("The name is 'Zero'," said Luka to Miku and Lily), but Luka had somehow managed to convince her into it. Her voice was hypnotic if she really put her mind to it, and Miku was powerless to resist; just another vampire power Luka had, apparently.

Miku frowned and looked behind her for Lily, who was looking very ill-at-ease as she tried to fend off the vampire who kept offering her a drink of blood. However, as Miku opened her mouth to try to wave her over, her line of sight was blocked by a group of vampires walking by, and Luka was still walking.

"Luka," said Miku, urgently. "Lily was back there..."

"She'll be fine," said Luka as her eyes scanned the crowd. "I know a girl here who _should_know about this sort of thing..."

"How?" Miku asked.

"It's always unusual when a vampire makes a dhampir," said Luka.

"Oh," said Miku. There was a pause. "So...whenever vampires bring humans here...what happens?"

"Nothing special," said Luka. "I mean a few vampires bring humans here as a sort of 'drinking vessel', as it were-"

"That's disgusting!" Miku interrupted, getting the picture already. Suddenly the cold arm around her shoulder didn't feel so comforting and safe anymore. She shuddered; she could imagine the fear and terror in the humans as they get fed upon by vampire after vampire, a neverending hell of violation. "Please don't tell me that you do that kind of thing."

Luka looked away and rubbed her nose and changed the topic. "I uh, think she should be..." she led Miku over to a room where, to Miku's disgust and horror, there were a few cages of humans, all of whom had a dazed grin and half-lidded eyes, puncture marks all over their bodies. The room was rather odd, with its tatty Persian rug, and its loud red walls, and the various couches around the room where the vampires were engaged in a wide variety of activities.

Miku couldn't look at any of this, and, face flushing red, she looked down at the rug, which looked more or less normal save for a few rusty stains of blood. She felt Luka drag her over a couch where a girl was rapidly tapping out things on an iPhone.

"Hey Gumi," said Luka.

The girl looked up. "Oh, Luka! What a surprise," she had a voice like the tinkle of a bell. "You brought a human with you?" She swung her gaze over at Miku, who at first met it before tearing her gaze away; Gumi had uncommonly deep eyes. Miku felt as if she were to stare at her too long, she'd fall into her. "She looks delicious. Smells good, too. For a fledgling, you sure know how to pick them! Is she going into the empty cage over there?"

"Oh," said Luka. "No. She's just a...friend of mine. Anyways," her tone grew businesslike. "I interrogated a genie recently because it's been harassing a friend of mine, but...it was really tight lipped," Luka shrugged. "Could you get the information out of it?" She withdrew from her jacket a flask, firmly corked. Inside the flask was a distinct, smoky substance. "I just want to know who sent it."

Gumi took the vial and looked at it. "Sure, but you can't expect me to do it for free." She looked up at Luka and grinned. "So, got anything to make it worth my while? Maybe a quick drop of blood from your delectable little friend here?"

Luka shook her head. "No, not her. I don't think she'll like it."

Mina laughed. "What happened, Luka? So protective of humans now!"

"Look," said Luka, impatiently. "I'll give you some time incense."

Time incense, Miku knew, was something very rare and sought after by vampires, for its smoke could change the chemical properties of the local environment to make night seem like day, or day seem like night. Eating time incense, although the taste was terrible, could also enable the vampire to walk around in daylight with no ill effects for a moment of time that depends on how much time incense was consumed.

Gumi's eyes grew wide and greedy. "Time incense? My, how'd a fledgling like you get her hands on that? How do I know if you're telling the truth?"

"Simple," said Luka. She pulled out a small white candle from her jacket. "I have a stick of time incense right here." She rubbed it and an exotic, not unpleasant smell wafted over to Miku. Gumi took a long breath, smelling the scent of the time incense.

"How much of it will you give me?" Gumi asked.

Luka considered. "A quarter of it."

"A whole quarter of time incense for interrogating a genie!" Gumi laughed and clapped her hands. "You fledglings have no sense of how valuable these things are! Well, you'll learn. Anyways," Gumi put the genie vial away. "Come back here tomorrow night. I'm sure I'll have extracted the information from the genie."

Luka nodded. "Okay." She took Miku and led her out back into the main room, where Lily appeared from the crowd and latched onto Miku.

"There you two are!" said Lily. "Are we done here? This place is _sickening_," she shuddered. "People kept wanting to give me blood..."

"Blood is good for a growing dhampir," said Luka.

Miku frowned at Luka before looking back at Lily. "Umm, Luka talked to some girl in there, so we should get the information on who your dad is soon. And I guess after that we can just...talk to him and see if-"

"_Talk_to him?" Lily laughed, disbelievingly. "Do you really think that freak'll stop if you just stroll in and talk to him?"

"It's true," said Luka, looking at Miku. "For some vampires, having a dhampir is a shame, a mark of thin blood. For others it's a source of pride and honor, but since this particular vampire is trying to kill Lily...well..."

"Exactly," said Lily, impatiently. "I hate him," she clenched her hands into fists. "He was never there, and now he's trying to kill me. And he's a vampire! He should just die, like the freak he is."

"Die!?" Miku stared at Lily, aghast. "Lily, do you know what you're saying?"

"So!?" Lily yelled. "He deserves it! I never wanted to be a dhampir, I didn't want all this trouble, and then one day walking home from school a genie appears and tries to kill me and has been trying to kill me, my mother's too afraid of him to do anything! Vampires are already dead...they shouldn't even exist."

"...Lily, calm down," said Luka, her voice low and dangerous, her eyes flashing red. "You are in a vampire club right now. Insulting us will get you no help from us," she grabbed Lily by her scarf. "Now _shut up_."

That only made Lily angrier, and she slapped Luka's hand away. "You shut up. I never wanted your help." She turned and disappeared into the crowd.

Miku looked at Luka and then at the area where Lily left, uncomfortable. Luka was looking rather angry, her eyebrows drawn together, her hands clenching and then unclenching, so Miku decided to drag Luka over to the blood bar. Luka mumbled out her order and paid a ridiculous amount of money for the blood. Miku shivered as the bartender silently handed her the warm cup of red blood, and she handed it over to Luka, who drank all of the blood in the tiny shot glass in one gulp, and then slammed the glass back onto the bar.

"Where does the blood in here come from?" Miku asked, almost dreading the answer.

Luka stared at her before looking distantly over at the dance floor, crammed full with undead bodies. "Sometimes vampires would bring humans over here so that we can extract their blood for the drinks...other times the owners have to go get the blood themselves...that's why this blood is so _overpriced_," she stared down at the empty shot glass glumly. "Two hundred a pop."

Miku opened her mouth to ask where the _hell_Luka could get so much money, but then she thought better of it. She didn't especially want to involve herself too much with this vampire's life. "So...where did you get the time incense? Since it's really rare."

Luka rubbed her finger around the glass and said nothing, and after a few minutes Miku realized that Luka was ignoring her. With a frown and a huff, Miku turned back towards the bar before looking back over at Luka, who was still staring down at her empty shot glass.

"So. Do they serve any other drinks in this place? Water? Soda? Wine?" Miku asked.

"I never drink...wine," said Luka.

Miku looked over at the bar and saw that indeed there was no wine served, nor soda, nor water, only blood. Once again, Miku felt that shudder run through her body, that essential sense of _not belonging_, and then she stood up from the stool. "I want to go. Can we leave now?"

Luka looked up at her and with a sigh nodded.

-o-o-o-

"I hired an Ishim," said Lily to Miku a few days later, after school. "We can't trust that vampire."

It was daytime and the sun was out. Miku and Lily were sitting in McDonalds, eating burgers and fries. Miku wasn't able to eat her food, her stomach too twisted with worry and fear, but Lily, even though she was the one in danger, ate a lot, even eating through Miku's fries.

"An Ishim!?" Miku stared at Lily. "They're so suspicious, though..."

"No more suspicious than a vampire," said Lily, taking a bite from her burger. "Look, just tell your vampire friend to buzz off. We don't need her anymore. She's just a fledgling, too."

Miku hesitated. "Can't we all just work together?"

"An Ishim and a vampire?" Lily snorted. "Please."

"W-well, fine," Miku said. "What's the name of this Ishim?"

"Meiko," said Lily. "She seems reliable, experienced."

Miku sighed. "That's good, but Lily, I don't think that we can get rid of Luka. It's not that easy."

"She'll probably be relieved that she doesn't have to help us anymore," said Lily. "Come on, Miku. Luka has no personal interest in us; she's only helping us because you blackmailed her, correct?"

Miku hesitated. Luka was helping because she liked Miku's blood, and Miku had paid Luka with a little of it. Plus, Luka also mentioned being 'drawn' to her...somehow Miku did not think that Luka leaving would happen so easily. "It's...complicated."

"What's so complicated about it?" asked Lily, exasperated at first, before a slow expression of horror made its way across her face. "Miku, don't tell me. Are you _attracted_to her? Is that it?"

"Wh-what!?" Miku gaped at Lily. Attracted to Luka? Was she? Sure, Luka was stunningly beautiful, but Miku never really thought of Luka _that _way before. Or did she? Miku remembered the two times when Luka sucked her blood, and shuddered. It had seemed so pleasurable both times. Miku had completely lost herself in the feeling. She didn't want to enjoy it, but she did, and each time Luka finished, Miku found herself feeling disappointed.

"She's a _vampire_, Miku," said Lily, her voice low. "Her beauty is just a trick to lure us mortals into giving those bloodsuckers their blood! They're evil. Don't forget, Miku. Vampires don't understand things like 'love'," Lily's voice was bitter. "Just ask my mother. Sure, they can be charming and sweet when they want to, and I don't deny that they are beautiful, but it's all a trick. They _aren't human_."

"You're not human either," said Miku, sullenly.

Lily looked as though she had been physically slapped. "Miku...no, I am human," Lily glared at her. "I _am _human. I'm not like a dhampir. I mean, my blood might be part vampire, but I'm _human_. I don't thirst for blood like those freaks. I'm not like a vampire at all. I'm human, you hear me?" Lily gripped the table, her eyes flashing (like a vampire would, Miku thought to herself).

Miku looked away. "...if you say so, Lily. I just don't think that it's so easy to get out of having Luka-"

"And who said I wanted a _vampire _to help in the first place?" Lily leaned in. "I never did. You made the decision by yourself. You and your...vampire worship, like everyone else! They're all monsters. Why am I the only person who sees that?" Lily suddenly seemed very small and defeated.

Miku reached out a hand and grabbed onto Lily's, trying to be a good friend and give her comfort. "Okay, Lily. I'm sorry...I'll try to talk to Luka then."

Lily took a deep breath and a long exhale. "Good."

-o-o-o-

"I found out who the vampire's father is," Luka told Miku as the two of them walked down the store-lined street of North First Street at night. The lights from the store shone onto the dark concrete that Miku and Luka were walking on. All around the two were a mass of people, shopping or talking or just walking. Taxis raced to and fro, making noisy honks in the distance.

Miku blinked at her, surprised. "You did? Really?"

Luka puffed with pride. "Of course! Gumi told me after she interrogated the genie."

"Oh, so it wasn't _you _who found it out," Miku said, a little jokingly.

"Hey," Luka acted wounded. "I did my part. Anyways, her father is one of those old fashioned types. Very old vampire," Luka sighed. "Leon Magnus. Lives in a castle."

Miku's eyes widened. "A _castle_?" Vampires who actually had castles were very old indeed...very old, very traditional, and very powerful. "No way. He's Lily's dad? You're _kidding_."

"Unfortunately, I'm not," Luka winced. "But I did some more research on Leon. He lives in this old castle out near this small little old-fashioned village in Kasodil, a superstitious old place that pays tribute to him. He's completely removed from the modern vampire world. He doesn't even belong to a house! So...he shouldn't be too hard to defeat."

Miku blinked. "Uh. He's still a really old vampire, in case you forget."

"I know that," said Luka, impatiently. "But he seems like the type who's lazy and slothful; he's probably not as strong anymore."

There was a little truth in Luka's words. However...a thought struck Miku and she looked at Luka. Why was this vampire so interested in helping? There was really nothing in it for her, except for Miku's blood, but that wasn't anywhere near enough for a fledgling to want to stake one of its own kind. The more Miku thought about it, the less it made sense to her. Vampires should not be helping humans and dhampirs. Once again, Miku remembered that Luka was of Karnstein, and suspicion crept into her mind once more.

"Why are you so _into _this?" Miku asked. "Helping a human and a dhampir stake your own kind...what exactly are you planning?"

Luka stared at Miku, caught off-guard by the question. "Huh?"

"You don't even _like _Lily," Miku continued. "You keep fighting with her. There's no reason for you to be helping us. So generous too, giving away some time incense...what exactly are you hiding?"

Luka looked down and opened her mouth. She hesitated, and then closed it and shook her head. "I can't tell you."

"Does this have anything to do with the government?" Miku asked, on a small hunch, remembering Luka's refusal to go to the blood suppliers the day they first met.

"Maybe," said Luka, infuriatingly vague.

Miku frowned at her. "How can I know if I can trust you? You know, Lily told me today that we shouldn't be working with you anymore because she hired an Ishim...and..." Miku blinked as she slowly began to realize this. "We...don't know _anything _about you. What you want, what your past is, why you're even helping us...sure, you say it's because you feel like you owe me a debt, and you like my blood, but that's no reason to help us so much. Who are you, Luka?"

Luka was silent for a long while. "I'm sorry. I can't tell you that."

"...oh," said Miku, and she looked away. She remembered the club - the humans in cages, how Luka refused to answer Miku's question about whether or not she partook of the caged human's blood. She remembered Mina. She remembered Luka taking her blood against her will, pushing her down to the ground and forcibly plunging her fangs into Miku.

Miku felt a chill of horror run down her spine. She was walking next to a vampire. Someone dangerous. Someone who had already hurt her, someone who probably saw humans as nothing, as food; Miku remembered once again the caged humans. She could end up like them, once this was all over...

She shouldn't have trusted Luka so foolishly in the first place. Even if she ran...Miku was certain that Luka knew where she lived, because the vampire had been watching her ever since their first meeting. She couldn't go inside Miku's house, no, but Luka could easily abduct Miku and kill her by sucking out all of her blood, or worse, make Miku her _thrall_, her blood-slave, living only to serve Luka.

The full gravity of the situation crashed down around Miku. She stopped walking and suddenly found it difficult to breathe. She put a hand to her rapidly beating heart. Lily was right; she was always right. Luka was a vampire, after all. Perhaps Miku really had been too attracted to Luka to notice the predicament that she, that they all, were in.

Luka looked back. "Something wrong?"

Miku couldn't speak. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. She only backed away, slowly. "I...you're...st-stay away from me," Miku stammered, her words coming out mangled due to her fear. How could she have been so stupid? Foolishly going along with a vampire she knew nothing about, drawn to the vampire like a moth to a flame, but flames can kill moths if they get too close...and vampires feed on human blood.

"What?" Luka stared at Miku, confused. "Why?"

"I don't know anything about you," Miku said, putting a hand to her head. "Th-this is stupid. I was stupid. Maybe this was all a trap or something. Lily was right. I shouldn't trust you. I shouldn't even be walking with you, I..."

Luka stared at Miku some more as her face slowly changed into an expression that was impossible to define. "You don't trust me." It was a statement.

"How could I? I don't know anything about you," Miku said in a rush. "You took my blood without my permission the first time we met, I was so afraid back then...why am I even _talking _to you? Oh god..."

"I was starving back then," Luka said, her voice a little upset. "I couldn't control myself."

"So!?" Miku yelled. "You're a _vampire_!"

Luka's face twisted into one of anger, her pupils rimmed with red. "So what if I am? I'm helping you now, aren't I?"

"Exactly! You have _no reason_ to be helping us!" Miku said, her voice panicked with fear. "I can't trust you! Who knows what you want? After all this is over, what are you going to do with me? With us? Leave us alone? We can't give you anything, except for our blood. You want to make me your _thrall _after this, right?"

"_What_? I'm not going to make you my thrall," Luka said in a low hiss, her fangs appearing; the sight of it was enough to make Miku's breaths hitch with fear. "I'm not so degenerate...you humans really don't understand anything!"

"You're degenerate enough to trap humans in _cages_and drink their blood in some kind of...some kind of blood drinking orgy!" Miku said, her fear and anger at the forefront of her mind. The fact that Miku and Luka were arguing in the middle of a crowded street did not phase into her consciousness.

"Shut up!" Luka's eyes were fully red now. Combined with her fangs, she looked completely feral and dangerous; a true vampire. "Idiotic human..." She grabbed Miku by her shirt and dragged her down the street, making a few sharp turns into a deserted alley.

It was dark and dirty, with no lights. Miku noticed to her alarm that Luka's eyes glowed in the dark, and the sight of it was enough to make her almost die from fear. Miku was barely coherent by the time they actually reached the alley, crying and shivering with fear at her inevitable fate as the vampire she barely knew pushed her against the wall with enough force to make Miku feel like her bones were shaking. The vampire shoved her forehead against Miku's, making her stare into her blood-red, glowing eyes. Miku whimpered and tried to close her eyes, but she could not tear them away from Luka's.

"Listen up," said Luka, her cold breath dusting over Miku's face. "I'm someone you don't want to piss off. You don't want my help? Fine. I won't help you then." Luka's eyes were beginning to go back to their natural blue color. "I don't know why I waste my time helping you humans when all I get in return is this." She moved her head back and Miku, her knees too weak to support herself, slumped to the ground. "Your friend and you can go die for all I care. You really think an Ishim is enough to stop Leon Magnus? If so, you're an idiot. A complete and total idiot."

"Why are you even acting so wounded?" Miku managed to say in a quivery voice. "You have no reason to be helping us..."

Red-blue eyes narrowed in the darkness. "That's just what you think." Miku heard the sound of Luka turning and beginning to walk away. Miku felt panic clench her heart.

"W-wait," she cried to the darkness. "H-how am I going to get back home? I don't even know where I am!"

"Find your own way back," Luka replied, her voice ice-cold. "You don't trust me anyways."


	4. Chapter 4

It was dark and cold, and Miku was afraid.

It was a few minutes after Luka left her in the alley by herself, and Miku had been wandering around the streets of Crypton in a dizzy, confused haze. She could not recognize where she was. She in another alley this time, with fading graffiti on the red bricks over a dumpster. Miku was shivering and afraid, and when she pulled out her cell phone to call someone for help, she found that the batteries had run out.

Miku stuffed the cell back into her pocket and walked down the alley some more, looking around desperately for some signs of life, some people, some buildings or placenames that would identify where she was in the vast city of Crypton. Miku walked and walked and walked, until eventually she reached a few buildings. Peeking inside, Miku saw to their horror that they were if not brothels, strip clubs or peep shows.

She was in Kirrick, Miku realized with a jolt. Miku backed away from the buildings, looking around desperately. She could see a few prostitutes on the streets looking at her and laughing at her. Little girl lost. Miku backed away from them as well, back into the alley where she came from. She shouldn't even be in here. All at once Miku felt anger at Luka rush to her mind. This was her fault. If she hadn't left Miku in that deserted alley, Miku would be home safe. Her parents were probably worried to death about her, and if any of them found out that Miku had been in Kirrick...

Miku turned and ran back into the alley, past the homeless bums, past the peeling posters and graffiti. She ran and ran blindly until she ran into someone, and, staggered, she stepped back and rubbed her head before looking up.

Fear chilled her blood. A man with cold, aristocratic features and pure black hair stared down at her disdainfully. His eyes were red, pearly white fangs appearing at the corners of his mouth. Another vampire, and he looked hungry, too.

Miku whimpered and backed away. The vampire stood, silently tracking her movements with his eyes. Miku raised her hands in a poor attempt at a placating gesture.

"Please leave me alone," she said, begged. "I'm sorry for bumping into you. Please don't drink my blood. Why don't you just g-go to the...the g-government blood suppliers? Or th-the blood whores?" Luka's bite on her neck was starting to itch all over again.

Whoever the vampire was, he didn't seem to be listening. Indeed, he seemed to be completely taken over by bloodlust. Words would not reach him. After what happened with Luka, Miku was not especially inclined to run away, lest she get tackled from behind again. There was no escape. Miku just stared as he approached closer and closer. No escape at all.

Miku shut her eyes, but then she heard the solid sound of a punch connecting with flesh, and she snapped them open. A girl she did not recognize was in front of her. She was wearing a long, brown duster, and a cowboy hat. She had short brown hair as well. Miku could do nothing but stare at her too. She suddenly felt aware of her own acute powerlessness.

Fast as lightning, the vampire, momentarily dazed, jumped to his feet and made a rush at the girl in the duster, who threw at stake that buried itself next to his heart. Temporarily paralyzed, he writhed around in pain, clutching his chest, before the girl produced another stake and stabbed him through his heart. The vampire slumped over and fell to the ground before rapidly he began to degrade to dust and ashes. The girl flicked at her duster, professionally, before grabbing the two stakes from the crumbling corpse and putting them away in another pocket in her duster. Miku was gaping, stunned by the ease in which the girl killed the vampire.

"W-wow," Miku stammered. "Wh-who are you?"

The girl turned and Miku was surprised to see that she was rather young; couldn't have been more than twenty four.

"An Ishim," she said. "Meiko." She knelt down and looked at the corpse. "Very new. Probably newborn...suffering from the intensity of the bloodlust that grips all newborn vampires."

Miku only caught on to the first part of what the girl said. "Meiko!? Then you're the one Lily hired!" Miku scrambled to her feet. This display had now thoroughly convinced her of the Ishim's skills. Taking down a bloodlust crazed newborn was no easy feat; although newborns were of course easier to kill than fledglings and older, more experienced vampires, they were still no picnic to defeat.

"Ah," Meiko looked at her, surprised. "Then I take it that you're Miku?"

"Yeah!" Miku nodded. "Thank you for saving me."

"It's no problem," said Meiko, getting up, and then abruptly stiffening. "Another one...?"

"Another vampire!?" Miku looked around, wildly. When did she become such a vampire magnet? However, Meiko relaxed a few moments later.

"It's gone," she said. "Anyways, well, it's nice to meet you, Miku. I trust I'll be working with you then?"

"Yeah," Miku nodded. "So uhm, do you know who Lily's father is? Or are you still investigating that?"

Meiko scratched her cheek. "I have narrowed her father down to a few suspects. Crowley of House Nesuferit, Nicholas of House Bathory, and the houseless Leon Magnus."

Leon Magnus? That was the same person Luka brought up earlier. So she had been telling the truth...Miku's brow furrowed. How odd. She truly did not understand Luka and her motives, but...Miku recalled how Luka left her alone in that alley and then she felt angry at her all over again. "I think it's Leon Magnus. I had a friend who told me that-"

"Ah," Meiko interrupted with a raised hand. "The vampire? Lily told me about her."

"Yeah," Miku nodded.

"Luka Megurine of House Karnstein..." Meiko mused. "She's an odd one if she helps humans and dhampirs."

"That was what I was thinking," Miku said. "She has no reason to help us, right?"

Meiko thought some more. "Well, maybe if..." she shook her head. "Never mind. That's impossible."

"Huh?" Miku blinked. "Uh, okay."

"Anyways," Meiko looked at Miku. "You look lost. You live in Vanderlyn District, correct? I assume this because Lily also lives in Vanderlyn."

"Oh," said Miku. "Yeah, I live in Vanderlyn. Could you take me there?"

Meiko nodded. "Follow me."

-o-o-o-

As they walked, Meiko gave Miku a brief lesson on the various bloodline powers of House Karnstein; probably because Lily told her to educate Miku as much as she could about Karnstein vampires due to her distrust of Luka. And it was true, Miku knew very little about Karnstein vampires other than their duplicity.

"Karnstein vampires are very beautiful," Meiko said. "That's one of their powers right there. They are charismatic, very good with words and other means of persuasion, which is how they obtained the reputation of duplicity, for it is very easy for them to manipulate people. They possess the bloodline power of Inveiglement, which gives them the power to awe, seduce, and manipulate. Offensively, they are more magically oriented, which is why government issued enchanted crosses actually have very little effect on them. Each Karnstein vampire has a different magical affinity though, so it's hard to say what this Luka is specializing in."

Awe, seduce, manipulate...Miku looked down at her feet. Perhaps that's what Luka did to her; she used her power to draw Miku under her influence. Awe, seduce, manipulate...

"Since Luka is only three," Meiko continued, "she is still very weak. I doubt her powers have developed far enough for her to have gotten anywhere far in her magical ability and in Inveiglement."

"Vampires really are strong," Miku mumbled to herself.

Meiko looked at her. "They do sound powerful, but they are weak in some ways. Vampires dislike working together. They're solitary creatures, so it's easier to take them out than if they're in groups, but there is a 'pack House' where its members work together. However, none of the Houses we are dealing with are of House Jehroda, so no worries there. Vampires can't enter homes without being invited, or else they will begin bleeding from all orifices and will die usually within fifteen seconds. They can't go out in sunlight, although there are rumors that once a vampire is old and powerful enough, sunlight is no longer a problem...but thankfully, all those old vampires are dead now. They have to drink blood to survive, only blood and nothing else. They live in a cold society that looks upon fear and weakness with disdain. They suffer from temptation into falling and giving in to their bloodlust. They are always alone. They suffer from the boredom of immortality."

Miku nodded, slowly. "I. I see."

"Yes," said Meiko, and she stopped walking. "Well, we're in Vanderlyn District now. I trust you can find the way back to your house?"

"Oh!" Miku looked back up and saw to her immense relief the familiar sights of Vanderlyn - the Tower Hotel and the Patin Museum on the left, the old-fashioned sweet shop on the right. "Yeah. Thank you, Meiko."

"No problem," Meiko said. "See you." She nodded, once, in Miku's direction, before turning and leaving. Miku smiled and waved after her before setting off to walk over to her house.

-o-o-o-

A few days later, during which Miku was scolded and grounded by her parents for being out so late and making them worry, Miku finally had her grounding lifted, and she called Lily to meet her and Meiko at McDonalds.

Miku arrived to find Lily and Meiko sitting at the table. The Ishim was wearing casual clothing, a jacket over a shirt and jeans, looking ordinary, completely unlike an Ishim, and Miku nodded to her as she sat down next to her. Lily got to business right away.

"There's been...bugs and bats following us," she said.

Meiko nodded. "Yes. I have observed that during the period of time while Miku was being...grounded, I have been followed by bats and bugs, and Lily confirmed that she was being followed by those as well."

"Were you?" Lily asked.

Miku blinked and thought. No bats or bugs had been in her presence to the best of her knowledge. "No."

"Probably because you haven't been with us for the past few days," Lily said, looking a little relieved. "Good, that means the vampire doesn't know about you yet. Did you tell Luka to go?"

Miku hesitated, surprised by the sudden wave of melancholy washing over her at Luka's departure. Why did she feel sad? She barely even knew Luka, yet here she was feeling sad about not seeing her again. Miku felt a bit of an ache after remembering the not-so-good way the two of them parted. "Yes. She's gone."

"Well, that settles it," Lily said, satisfied. "So, my father is Leon Magnus, right? He lives in a castle near a small village...but..." She frowned. "How can we get there? We have school to consider."

Miku couldn't resist laughing. "You're worried about school?"

"Yeah," Lily looked mildly affronted. "Education is important. Maybe we can say we're going on a study trip," Lily sighed.

"Wait," said Meiko. "I think you all are being too hasty. For one, we have no adequate weaponry against Leon Magnus. We don't know his weaknesses or the layout of his castle. If we just go to his castle, we'll be completely unprepared. Lily, you may be a dhampir, but Miku is an ordinary, untrained human. She has no protection. She should not be coming with us."

"Good point," said Lily, and she turned to Miku. "Well, Miku."

Miku blinked. "What? But I want to go."

"This isn't a picnic," said Lily. "We're going into a vampire's castle. I'm not sure if you can...handle it."

"But I..." Miku protested, and then she trailed off. True...she would only get in the way. But she was worried about Lily. She couldn't just let her go off into a vampire's castle alone. "I'm worried."

"Don't worry about me," said Lily. "Worry about yourself. I don't want to ruin your ordinary life. You've helped a lot, Miku. I'm grateful to you. But...you can't come with us. Like I said, it's simply too dangerous."

Miku's shoulders dropped. She could imagine Lily and Meiko leave to go off to the castle...and what then? Would Miku ever hear from them again? Lily was her childhood friend. Maybe if she went, she would die. And Miku would be left in Crypton, waiting and waiting for her friend to come back.

"We'll be fine," said Lily.

Meiko looked at Miku. "It shouldn't be too hard to take out this vampire."

Miku sighed. "If you say so..."

None of them noticed the fly on the leaves of the fake plants next to their table as Lily and Meiko outlined their plan of attack.

-o-o-o-

Miku was heading back home, feeling melancholy. It had been decided. Lily and Meiko would go to the castle without her. They had made all the decisions and Miku would have to stay here and wait for them.

Miku had just taken the turn onto the secret shortcut to her house that she knew well, when she suddenly felt something grab her with crushing force. A soaked handkerchief muffled her gasp of surprise, and Miku realized to her horror that it was chloroform. Everything grew darker, dimmer, her movements of protests became sluggish. No...she was being kidnapped...why was she always a victim? A defenseless girl...Miku struggled and tried to bite the hand, but everything was spinning and twirling and she was falling into blackness, with no Luka there to save her this time.

-o-o-o-

Luka was not feeling good.

Ever since she had argued with Miku, her mood had been completely shot. It was night, and she was walking along the streets of Vanderlyn, mumbling to herself and kicking pebbles and rocks, watching them soar through the air with the force of her superhuman kicks.

Luka looked up. She was at Miku's house, a location she knew well because she used to stand in front of this house at night, staring at it, before going up in a nearby tree and looking at the sleeping Miku through the window.

It was creepy, Luka admitted to herself, by human standards. By vampire standards, why, this sort of behavior was incredibly tame.

Luka looked down at her untied shoelaces before deciding to go over to Miku. _Maybe_apologize. Maybe even tell her the truth about herself, what Luka really was. Maybe Miku would understand then, if she wasn't too afraid. Luka took a hesitant step forward before stopping, and then she shook her head at her hesitance and leapt up to the top of the tree, landing softly on the branches, and she peered into Miku's room.

Miku was not there. Unusual at this time...Luka wrinkled her nose, perplexed. There was, however, a note on the bed. It was stained with blood. Suddenly panicked, Luka edged closer to the window, stepping carefully on the branch, and, slowly, slowly, opened the window, which was unlocked. She took a deep breath, careful to stay outside the confines of the home.

It was not Miku's blood. It was a vampire's blood. Luka looked at the letter, which was not written in any human language; it was written instead in diabole, the common language of vampires. Luka realized that the letter was meant for her, but Luka could not reach it without going into Miku's room. Seeing how the letter was soaked in the vampire's blood, the vampire must have gone into Miku's house without permission as well. If Miku's kidnapper could do it, well, so could Luka.

She steeled herself and leapt into the room. Immediately, blood began gushing from her eyes, her nose, her mouth as pain and weakness set into Luka's body. She blindly grabbed for the letter, soaking it with her own blood now too, and leapt out of the house. She had been in Miku's room for the total of three hundred milliseconds, and Luka landed on the ground heavily, with an 'oof'. She stopped bleeding the moment she leapt out the window, although she still felt weak, and her own dried blood was crusted in her mouth, on her tongue, around her eyes and nose. Luka winced. Such indignity...she sighed as she sat up.

Well, nothing she could do about that now. Luka looked at the bloodsoaked letter and read it. It was from Leon Magnus, and he had kidnapped Miku. He made vague threats towards 'the dhampir Lily' and 'the Ishim Meiko', and basically said that Luka had to go to his castle if she wanted to see Miku alive again.

"The dhampir and Ishim are mere annoyances," wrote Leon, "but perhaps a good fight against a vampire, fledgling you may be, would quench my eternal boredom these past few centuries."

Luka frowned at the letter. Obviously, Leon was bored, and just as obviously, he somehow knew about what Luka felt for Miku. How did he know? Luka put a hand to her chin and thought. Perhaps this Leon specialized in the skill of Animalism...perhaps he had animals follow all involved around, ascertaining everything and reporting things back to him.

"Stupid idiot!" Luka threw the letter aside, feeling suddenly angry at Miku. If she hadn't reacted like that, none of this would have happened. Luka would have _protected _her from being kidnapped, but no, Miku just _had_to run away from her. It hurt Luka to see Miku's face look at her with that frightened distrust. Luka sighed and looked down at her feet. She was feeling a little stronger now, so she got up and set off first in search of a change in clothes, and then for blood. And then, she decided, for Miku.

-o-o-o-

Miku awoke in an unfamiliar room, dark and cold.

She had no idea where she was, and then she remembered; she had been kidnapped when walking home. Panic seized her heart and she got up and looked around the room. She seemed to be in a vast throne room, tapestries hanging on the walls that depicted hideous faced monsters drinking the blood from helpless women and men, a long, richly red and gold carpet leading up some steps to a grand throne of gold and velvet. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling, lit. Although the area radiated refinement and elegance, Miku shuddered; there was definitely a sort of aura around the area that spoke of rot and decay. There were no windows in the room and Miku ran over to the door and pounded on it, but it was too thick and Miku doubted that any help would come.

The door swung open without warning and Miku stumbled back, fell backwards, landing on her bottom and hands, and stared up. A tall figure stood before her, a pale man with blonde hair and sunken eyes, dressed in elegant clothing - a tuxedo and a cape. He looked for all the world like an old-fashioned vampire.

And then it dawned on Miku. This man was Leon Magnus, Lily's father. The resemblance was unmistakable, those same eyes, the same complexion, the same haughty look...even the same gestures that brought to mind Lily as the man strode closer to the Miku.

"Welcome," he said. "I am Count Leon Magnus."

Miku couldn't speak. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.

Leon Magnus smiled. "Your heart is certainly beating quickly. I wonder how much blood you have inside you? That vampire seemed quite taken with you," he chuckled dryly. "I invited her here, along with your friends."

"Wh-what?" Miku finally spoke. "Luka's coming here? That's impossible. She has no reason to be coming here."

The Count Leon Magnus only looked at Miku askance. "That is only what you think. You know, I have been quite bored these past few centuries. Perhaps this would give me some fun...I have been trying to kill my dhampir child, a shame upon the name of Magnus, but she is surprisingly resilient..."

"Luka can't be coming," Miku mumbled to herself, dazed.

"She will," said the vampire with infuriating smugness. "She's a fledgling. Still susceptible to foolish human influences. Well, she'll learn in time. Until our guests arrive, you are to stay in this room at all times. I will lock the door. There is nothing you can use in this room to break the lock. I will feed you human food at regular intervals, but you are my prisoner."

Miku felt despair course through her being. She was kidnapped in a faraway place by a vampire, and now she had to worry about Luka and Lily. Why would Luka help her? Miku couldn't make sense out of it. The only reason Luka hung around with her was because of her blood, right? And Lily...she was just a kid like Miku, young and afraid and inexperienced. Miku looked down at her hands and prayed for safety.

-o-o-o-

Kasodil was a small town. All the villagers regarded Meiko and Lily with fear and suspicion - Lily moreso due to her looks. The two of them rented a room in the inn. Lily had made the excuse of going on a study trip, and had in fact already written her essay that would 'document' the events of the study trip...all of which were made up. After all, Lily couldn't very well write an essay about killing vampires.

Meiko was pacing around in the room. "The villagers are talking about us. This isn't good...word will definitely reach Leon Magnus."

"Let him know," said Lily as she checked and rechecked the stakes she brought with her.

Meiko sighed. "A huge amount of our plan relies on the element of surprise."

Indeed, their plan consisted of going through the sewers, which was not as guarded as the drawbridge, for one, and making their way up to the main body of the castle. All this would take place at day, and then the two of them would find the coffin of Leon Magnus and kill him. It was a simple plan at heart, but if Leon found out even a little of it, it is possible that he would use time incense to stay awake at day, maybe even set loose monsters in the sewers.

"It'll be fine," Lily said, impatiently. "So we're doing it tomorrow, right?"

Meiko peered out the window. "Yes. Tomorrow at five AM."

"Good," said Lily, satisfied.

-o-o-o-

"This is stupid," Luka said to herself as she entered the sewers. "Why am I even doing this?"

But of course, she knew why she was doing this - to rescue Miku. Luka had very little faith in the abilities of the dhampir and the Ishim. Sure, the Ishim was experienced, Luka saw that for herself (indeed, the 'other presence' that Meiko sensed that day in the alley was Luka herself. Luka was about to rescue Miku from the fangs of that bloodcrazed newborn, but then Meiko came along and ruined everything), but the Ishim wasn't experienced _enough_. As for the dhampir, well, Lily was obviously only running on her anger against Leon Magnus. She would not be very good in a real fight.

So it was all up to Luka then. She all the weapons she needed, and she was sure to drink a lot of blood before this, so her powers were at their peak. Luka walked down the sewers, her eyes piercing through the darkness easily. The water of the sewers was filthy, Luka noted; a thin film of goo spread over it. As Luka walked, further and further, she realized that there were bones, human bones, in the water.

Here a withered skeleton of a warrior, there a rotting corpse of a female, maggots clinging to dark red meat and entrails. Even a small skeleton of a child was in here, curled up next to a larger skeleton. However, most of the corpses in the sewers had not yet fully rotted to skeletons. Insects abounded, flies and spiders feeding upon the dead and bloated human bodies in the sewers. A horrific stink was in the air, sewer water with rotting bodies, sickening; any human would vomit at the smell itself. Luka wrinkled her nose mildly in distaste, but she was not especially disturbed. She had seen worse things in her life as a vampire. She walked on, ignoring the bodies, and continued walking for a while, until she stopped.

There was _something_ ahead of her - something large and dark, most likely dangerous. Luka hesitated and took a few cautious steps forward. The water was getting warmer. She could hear splashes in the distance. She was almost at the sewers entrance to the castle. Her senses judged that the _something _ahead of her was just slightly in front. Confrontation was inevitable. Luka continued walking until the sewers opened up, expanded to a vast circular room, water gushing from vents on the side, a whole mountain of dead bodies.

In front of her was a large, lizardlike freak of nature. It was a scaled creature with fur around its head with a long, spined tail, which was what was making the splashing noises, and a large, fanged human face instead of a reptile's snout and head. On closer inspection, the scales were not scales - instead, all of its scales were living faces, both men and women, adult and children, all of them laughing in a cacophony of monstrous, evil sounds. The head face turned slowly to look at Luka, and all the other faces quieted.

"Look," said a high, child's voice. "A girl!"

"She looks delicious," said another voice, male and deep. "It's been too long since we last had something to eat."

High piping female laughter. "Right! Magus doesn't feed us enough!"

Luka blinked at the creature, faint surprise coloring her voice. "...The Manticore of Legion."

"Ahah!" said a trumpet-like voice that emanated from the fanged, large head. It bared its teeth and Luka saw that it had three rows of sharp teeth, like a shark. "She knows us."

The Manticore of Legion - an infamous creature that was first spotted in the thirteenth century, although it was possibly even older than that. It was a thing of unparalleled evil and endless gluttony, feeding on everything. Its spined tail could shoot out venom that paralyzes the victim, and its heads could emit loud wails that could shake even the stoutest of hearts. It was even more frightening in the dark, where flashes of its various faces could be seen - sometimes its victims were first driven insane by the endless laughter and jeering faces, and then eaten.

"She's a pretty one," observed another voice.

"Indeed," said a voice with the hiss of a snake. "It's been a while since we fed on such a delicious-looking meal."

The Manticore of Legion moved closer to Luka, each of its many faces examining her with lust that seemed almost palpable.

To Luka's credit, she did not quail with fear or run away. She just stood there, as if bored.

"She doesn't fear us," said the child's voice again, surprised.

"That matters not. Can you move?" inquired the female voice in a voice as sweet as honey.

Luka could not. The water of the sewers seemed to have congealed around her legs, holding her fast. For the water in this particular chamber was not water - it was the saliva of the Manticore of Legion, provided by its thousands of faces over millenia. The Manticore of Legion could easily command the saliva to move and swallow its victims, or command it to form into water-tentacles, or even just hold the victim fast.

For sometimes, the Manticore of Legion fed upon base desire in its victims as well.

"She _is _beautiful," said the male voice with approval. "It's been too long."

"Indeed," said the trumpet-voice. "Very well then, we will do with her what we will...and then we eat her."

Luka was surprised to feel things, foreign, alien things, wriggle into her clothes, making tiny, precise movements engineered to deliver nothing more than pure pleasure.

This was the sickening perverseness of the Manticore of Legion. Each of its victims had their faces added to it after becoming in essence 'one' with the beast. That the manticore had many faces, tens of thousands, only attested to how deadly it was. Each and every one of its faces, aside from the head face, were the victims of this particular method of death. The many faces, from ones of little girls and little boys to old men and old women, all of them were made one with the beast by lust-killings.

The beast's many faces grinned as they moved in closer to Luka. One face made to nibble at her ear, another went to capture her lips, but at that moment Luka raised blood-red eyes and the beast felt a sweet thrill course through it, and it moaned as one.

"Undo your saliva," Luka commanded, her voice layered with magic and other sweet rhythms, and the beast obeyed, its wits scrambled.

In fact, any other observer would be pretty scrambled as well - a mere fledgling could not possibly have commanded a beast such as the Manticore of Legion, even if it spent all of its days training its bloodline power of Inveiglement. Indeed, even stronger vampires would not have been able to command it; the Manticore had many vampire faces on its body as well after all, faces from vampires that sought to take the castle of Leon Magnus away from him. Impossible then that a fledgling such as Luka would be able to do this.

"I don't really want to do this," Luka muttered to herself, "but..." She closed her eyes and thought of Miku imprisoned in the castle, for all the world like a fairy tale princess, and Luka sighed and looked back up, beckoning the main head of the beast toward her and the beast, too addled to refuse, walked over. Luka put her hand on its cheek and then her fangs appeared, her eyes flashing red with it. She looked brutal and evil, and she bit into the neck of the beast.

After a few moments, she withdrew, and the beast trembled on its legs before falling over. Luka waited for a few moments.

"Arise," she said.

The beast slowly got up to its feet, each one of its faces bloodless, a deathly pallor. Luka had made the beast into her thrall, but the real benefit was the strong blood of the Manticore of Legion coursing through her body.

"Take me to the entrance of Leon Magnus' castle," she commanded, and the beast obeyed without a word.


	5. Chapter 5

Miku was still sitting in the throne room. She did not know what time it was; the passage of time seemed nonexistent and ageless in this room, with its lack of windows. The chandelier was still lit, bathing some light on the room. Miku had her back against the wall. A few seconds later, she heard the door open. Count Leon Magnus walked in, carrying a small tray of food. He put it in front of Miku before turning.

"Odd that a vampire would serve a human food," said Miku as she looked at her food. "Are you living alone?"

Leon grinned. "Not at all. Let us say that the other residents of my abode would only frighten you if they were to serve you food, and my humanoid servants are...out."

"Out?" Miku echoed.

Leon's grin grew even larger, if that was possible. "Just testing your friends." He left before Miku could say anything.

"Testing...my friends?" Miku said to the air, weakly. She stared down at the food - buttered bread and a sort of stew with dark pieces of meat and white things in it; probably onions. Not bad for a prisoner, actually; Miku had expected worse. She picked up the spoon and sipped a little of the stew before coughing it out - the taste was acrid and rotting on her tongue. She stared at the stew and noticed for the first time that it smelled terrible; Miku had been too hungry to notice. Also...Miku peered a little closer, feeling her heartbeat in her ears. Those white things were...

Miku almost choked and with a cry she threw the bowl of stew at the other end of the room. It broke against the wall and the rotten meat slid down the wall, along with the white, wriggling maggots. Miku stood up, nervously, against the wall, remembering how Lily mentioned bats and bugs following her around.

If Miku had swallowed that...who knows what would have happened to her? Miku took a few deep, swallowing breaths and she looked carefully at the water and bread before deciding that it was safer to not eat or drink at all, and then she took the tray, walked over to the maggots, and began to smash at them over and over, killing them, until they were nothing more than an indistinguishable white mass. Miku felt bile rise in her throat at the disgusting sight of it, and then she buried her head in her hands and backed away and banged at the door, trying to open it to no avail.

She slid down to her knees. It was hopeless. She was trapped. She had to wait for Lily to come and rescue her. Or Luka, but there was no way that Luka would come, not after what happened the last time they met.

"Damn it..." Miku swore softly to herself.

-o-o-o-

"Thank you," said Luka to the Manticore of Legion at the entrance to the castle. "Now, you may die." She waved her hand over the Manticore of Legion's head, and immediately the Manticore of Legion brought its deadly spined tail to its main mouth and skewered itself with it. There was no blood for the Manticore was a bloodless thrall, and the Manticore fell over and died.

Luka nodded at the dead body before opening the small sewer entrance door and walking in. She was in a spare corridor and she kept walking until she caught a whiff of an odd smell. Luka poked her head through the door and saw that she was in the bedroom of the Count - a half-buried coffin laid on the floor, its lid off. Candles lit the room. Over the coffin was a grand tombstone - 'COUNT LEON MAGNUS' written over an engraved coat of arms.

Luka looked at it for a few moments before looking up around the room. No tapestries. Only candles. Nothing of interest. Luka walked on in search of Miku, noting that the halls were infested with insects, creeping and crawling, making strange, alien noises. Luka paid them little heed as she looked into every room in search of Miku, and none of them contained her.

Luka was beginning to feel a little worried. She looked up at the clock to check the time and continued pressing on, opening this door and that door, all of them empty except for the insects.

"Come on, Miku," said Luka to herself, "where are you...?" Opening, closing, opening, closing.

Empty. Empty. Empty.

-o-o-o-

Meiko and Lily were approaching the castle to look at its defenses when suddenly they heard the sound of horses in the distance before a black carriage appeared before them, except that there were no horses carrying it. It was simply a black carriage that appeared from nowhere.

Meiko looked at it for a few seconds. Nothing moved, until there was a muffled, loud bump in the carriage, and silence for the longest while...and then the carriage fell apart, and inside were two youths, a boy and a girl. The boy, blonde, had a bandage over his right eye and a sailor cap on, his clothes a blue coat with gold stripes on the cuffs and trims. The girl stood in stark contrast, her hair black and body unbandaged, in a red jumper with a checkered tie.

"What ho!" cried the boy in a jaunty sort of way. "So these are the two the Count wants us to kill?"

"That's right!" said the girl on the left. "They don't look too tough, right? We can take them. Two against two."

"No fair, Yuki," said the boy with a smirk. "We're probably too strong for them. This one for instance! She probably doesn't even know how to use her powers." He gestured at Lily, but for once Lily was too dumbfounded to take offense.

Lily found her voice. "Who are these two?"

Meiko bit her lip. "The Dapplebacks."

"The…Dapplebacks?" Lily echoed. "What _are _they?"

Meiko frowned as she drew her silver sword from its scabbard. "They're supernaturals...fae of Court Carnival."

"Indeed we are, ma'am!" cried Yuki with an exaggerated curtsy.

"You're a smart one, aintcha?" said the boy, and he took a bow. "Jolly nice to meet you two. I'm Oliver, and my esteemed friend here is Yuki. We're the Dapplebacks."

"Now hang on, Oliver," protested Yuki. "That's my speech! I always do the introductions!"

"And don't I know it," said Oliver with a scoff. "You always say it, might as well give me a crack at it."

Yuki scowled. "You're such a sneak, going around and…and breaking your promises. Why, if these two weren't here-"

"I'd love to see you do _that_, you silly josser," Oliver laughed. "You know I'd best you in any scrap."

"Wait!" said Yuki. "Aren't we being rude to our two opponents here? My apologies," she smiled lopsidedly at Lily and Meiko. "We get a bit too carried away sometimes."

"How about this then, Yuki?" Oliver said. "Whoever deals the finishin' blow to these two's the stronger."

"Wizard idea, Oliver," said Yuki, and she hunched over as an evil, demonic grin spread on her face and Oliver's at the same time.

"Get ready," Meiko said to Lily, and Lily nodded and gulped and fumbled with her weapon, a sword. It was only when she grabbed onto the blade that she realized that she had no idea how to use it.

Oliver and Yuki noticed this and so they seemed to have both decided at the same time to attack her. Oliver stuck a hand into his mouth and ripped out, to Lily's horror and disgust, his own spinal cord. He fell to the ground and immediately his skin began to morph and warp. Lily couldn't spend much time looking at what Oliver was doing, though - Yuki swiped at her with a hand that seemed to be a bit too claw-like to be normal. Lily panted and swung her sword at Oliver's transforming body, but her sword became stuck in his goo and she could not pull it out.

"Forget about the sword!" Meiko yelled as she practically jumped on the advancing Yuki and drove a stake into her back. Yuki showed no signs of pain and only turned and looked at Meiko and smiled in a friendly way as she lashed out with his clawed hands. Oliver had finished transforming - Lily only realized this once she saw that he was no longer a humanoid anymore - instead he was a human-sized lump of viscous goo. He had a tiny baby hand that wielded his spinal cord, which was now far spikier than it was before. He whirled it in circles as he advanced on Lily, his gaping maw opening wide into abyssal nothingness.

Lily panicked. She stabbed into his mouth with the sword that she picked back up after Oliver finished transforming and felt only nothing. Yuki had diverted her attention to Lily instead, but Lily saw to her disgust that she had turned his head 180 degrees around, and that her elbows and knees could bend backwards.

"Wh-what?" Lily stammered.

"They're fae of Court Carnival," Meiko grunted as she threw the stakes at Oliver and took several leaps backward to escape his blow. "They are endowed with the power of Circus."

"Right you are," said Oliver jauntily, giving no indication that he was even remotely winded. "Us fae can perform feats that no human can do! Have you ever been a carnival?"

"No," Lily said as she struck at Oliver's neck with her sword, but Oliver easily dodged it, still talking.

"Shame, shame! You must've had a deprived childhood," he said as he stretched his arms to grab onto Yuki. He lifted Yuki above his head and threw her at Lily and Meiko. Yuki landed with a loud thump, and Lily just barely escaped from impact. Meiko had already rolled out of the way and was searching through her coat for something.

"You two are no fun," Oliver complained. "I was expectin' a harder fight than this!"

Lily was spurred by this taunt and started attacking again, each of her blows easily blocked by Oliver. Attack after attack after attack, ending in nothing but failure. Lily felt a small burst of frustration inside her. Why weren't her blows hitting? Oliver and Yuki were apparently getting bored, for they had begun their meaningless banter again.

"Cor, for a dhampir, she sure is weak," Oliver chortled. "Well Yuki, I'm gettin' a mite bit tired of this bandying about. Think we should get on with it?"

"I don't see why not," said Yuki with a shrug. "Better now than never, right?"

The two of them slowly advanced towards Meiko and Lily as the sun slowly began to rise. Lily cursed to herself. They were running out of time. They still had to go through to the sewers...

-o-o-o-

Luka kicked open another door, too impatient to open it with her hands. This room was bigger than most, a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, a throne sitting in the center of the room...Luka drew her gaze around and saw Miku sitting against the right side of the room.

Luka gasped and ran over immediately. "Miku!"

Miku looked up. Her eyes registered nothing but pure shock, and her mouth dropped open. "Luka?"

"Thank god you're alright," Luka dropped to one knee and began to look at Miku's wrists for any signs of mistreatment. "Are you hurt?"

"Why are you here?" Miku asked, her voice dazed.

"Wh-why am I here?" Out of all the questions Luka expected, she did not expect this one. "Why...wouldn't I be here...?"

"You're a vampire," Miku's brow furrowed. "You...have no reason to be helping me."

Luka felt that familiar feeling of hurt at those words. Why couldn't Miku understand? Luka gritted her teeth together in frustration. "That's just what you think. Miku, I..."

-o-o-o-

Lily felt fatigue shake her bones with each blow. She was tired, so tired. Her legs felt as though they were made of iron, and moved sluggishly; her arms were heavy. Meiko was beginning to look fatigued as well, her steps staggering and her movements slower.

Only Oliver and Yuki were anywhere near energetic. Oliver, who had transformed himself back into human form, was wielding a ridiculously large, almost comically sized knife. A vicious slap with the side of the blade sent Lily sprawling on the ground.

"Too easy!" Oliver chuckled.

Lily could only stare at Oliver as he approached her with the knife. She was going to die right here...Lily felt so tired. Maybe death would be a release. She let her eyes slowly close shut as her conscious mind let go.

-o-o-o-

Oliver was fully expecting to kill Lily and be done with it. In fact, he had the knife over her neck, about to decapitate her.

So it was understandable that he would be shocked when Lily's eyes shot open a little more than a second later, except her eyes were different, no longer the rational eyes she had when fighting earlier; no, these were eyes of all whole different type altogether, savage and bestial.

Lily leapt to her feet and rolled back and snarled, actually snarled, at A, before her arms began to transform into long, metallic-looking claws.

"What's she doing, Yuki?" Oliver asked as he warily hefted his blade.

"I don't know," said Yuki, who had been ready to kill Meiko.

Lily stopped moving after her claws transformed. The three of them stayed like that for a very, very long while, before Oliver decided that well, if Lily wasn't going to move, he should, and as he took a step forward he was surprised to see that he could not move because he no longer had legs. Yuki seemed to have lost her arms.

Lily was still there, unmoving. Oliver blinked and squinted and then he realized that it was only an afterimage; Lily had somehow managed to move so fast...

"H-how?" Oliver stammered.

He never got to hear the answer, because Yuki was dead, and in a second, so was he.

-o-o-o-

Miku didn't know what to think.

Luka was here to rescue her. Luka. But Luka was a vampire, right? No way would she expend the time and energy to try to rescue a lowly human like Miku...

Miku couldn't deny, however, that she felt positively ecstatic when Luka kicked open the door. Luka had looked heroic, strong, practically invincible. However, reason rushed back into Miku's mind once more. Why was Luka even here to rescue her? She was a vampire. A vampire!

"You...have no reason to be helping me," Miku said in complete confusion.

Luka's eyebrows drew together, and for a moment she looked angry. "That's just what you think. I..."

But Miku never got to hear Luka finish her sentence, for Leon walked into the moment after Luka said 'I'.

"I am impressed you managed to make your way all the way here," said Leon.

Luka put her cold hand on Miku's shoulder, as if telling her to stay still, before she stood up. "Oh?"

"Indeed," Leon smiled. He snapped his fingers and all at once the tapestries fell away from the walls to reveal portraits, all darkened so Miku could not see their features very well. "You know who these are, correct?"

"The great ancestors of vampirism," said Luka, mechanically. "Obviously. I don't see how this has to do with you kidnapping Miku."

"Oh," Leon smiled. "This has nothing to do with me kidnapping Miku. No, instead this has to do with you. For a fledgling, you are very powerful. I am proposing that you join me and forget about that stripling of a human girl. Remember our ancestor, Sateriajis Venomania," Leon snapped his fingers again and a light shone on one of the portraits, which illustrated a grim-looking man who stared out from the portrait, fangs obviously visible. "He died precisely because he sought a woman named Gumina. At the peak of his power, he fell due to this detestable weakness. The lesson to be learnt from this is unmistakable. Other vampires too have died from this same thing; many of our great ancestors had fallen to the human weakness of 'love', and died. What say you? It is truly a shame to destroy such a promising young fledgling. Will you not reconsider? Abandon this Miku to her fate as bait for my shame of a daughter. They will both die, and we will rule over this land together how vampires should live - strong as the rulers of humans, not as pitiful little Houses clashing together in power struggles. We will be the Nobility once more."

Luka looked a little melancholy. "The time of the Nobility is over. This castle and the age of when vampires used to rule over humans is over and gone. You are nothing more than a fragment forgotten by time. Return to where you belong."

Miku stared at Luka. She had certainly not expected this refusal of power. Shouldn't Luka be jumping at the chance?

Leon seemed angered. "Silence!" he pounded his fist against the wall. "We vampires have been given immortality! We are the undying. We are the strongest, most intelligent, most organized of all supernaturals. What are we made for then, if not for ruling?"

It was then that Miku noticed that Luka was not looking at Leon. She was instead looking over at the portrait behind him, its features shrouded in darkness.

"I will see then that you die for turning your back upon the noble blood of vampires," said Leon, his face twisted in anger. "Vampires nowadays are nothing more than thin-blooded dogs, like my shame of a daughter! You should all die...all of you _weak_, thin-blooded _animals_!" He swept his cape out behind him and Luka blinked and moved back rapidly, drawing the sword that had been hanging from a scabbard on her waist. Leon's cloak fluttered, expanded, and tried to wrap around Luka.

Luka took another leap back and tried to strike at the cape, but Miku saw that the cape was sticky, and Luka's sword could not tear it. The cape twined around Luka's hand, forcing her to let go, and the sword flew to the side as Leon's cape returned to normal dimensions.

"And now you stand weaponless," he laughed. "Listen, fledgling - this cape was stitched with the skin of the countless human wretches I fed upon, lacquered with their blood. With the techniques I learned from Ancestor Banica Conchita herself, I made this cape ten times as strong as steel, and ten times more flexible than cords. Perhaps...after I defeat you, that girl would be the next skin to join my cape."

Luka 'tsk'ed and threw several wooden stakes at Leon, who deflected them easily with his cape. The stakes fell to the floor, and Leon took off his cape, which flared in the air, showing its bright red insides, and Miku could see the tiny white stitch marks between the human skins before the cape morphed into a blade, and Leon slashed at Luka.

Luka leapt back, but not fast enough, for the blade caught on her arm and drew blood.

"Ugh," Luka grunted and clutched at her arm as she stood directly in front of Miku.

Leon was looking rather confident. "In the end, you're still just a fledgling..." His cape began a cape once more in his hands, and it wrapped around Luka and began to constrict.

Miku put her hands on the ground and stared in horror at the spectacle. She wanted to help. Luka was in trouble, her face twisting in pain from the constricting cape as Leon stood back with a satisfied grin on his face. Miku couldn't be useless anymore...she had to do something. In that moment, she noticed the sword that Luka held. Maybe that? Miku ran over to the sword and picked it up. It felt heavy in her hands.

Miku gulped. She never really thought that she would ever do anything like this before, but she had to. Luka gave out a short grunt of pain and that did it; Miku felt her feet run towards Leon, whose face held an intensely concentrating expression, and slashed at his back.

In that moment, the cape released its hold on Luka, and she dropped to the ground, groaning, and Leon whirled around too fast for Miku's eyes to follow and caught the blade between his hands.

"Oh," he started to laugh. "I suppose you aren't so useless after all, human. I suppose when it comes to her almost dying, even you can be roused from your cow-like stupor. Well," Leon's expression darkened and Miku felt a chill of fear run up her spine. "I no longer need you. The fledgling blundered here to save you. My shame of a daughter is not yet here, and I have sent the fae Oliver and Yuki to incapacitate her...I daresay she's outside, dead and rotting, finally. You have outlived your usefulness, _bait._"

Miku's eyes widened as she heard the last part, worry filling her heart for Lily, and at that moment Leon pushed her with so much force Miku practically flew into the wall slightly below the giant portrait of some vampire ancestor, hitting her head on the stone, and she fell unconscious.

-o-o-o-

"Lily?"

It felt like morning. Lily felt her eyes sting below her eyelids. She had to get up to go to school, right?

"Lily!"

Shaking. Ugh. Lily groaned and pulled her pillow over her head, except there was no pillow - her fingers touched grass.

Immediately, Lily awoke and the memories of what happened rushed into her mind. She and Meiko had been fighting Oliver and Yuki, the fae of Count Carnival. Lily had been about to die...except she's alive? Lily stared down at her hands before looking up.

Oliver and Yuki were lying on the ground. More accurately, _pieces _of Oliver and Yuki were lying on the ground. Blue faerie blood painted the grass, and their lifeless heads stared up at the sky. They were completely rended to pieces, as if torn apart by some rampaging beast.

"Wow," Lily breathed. "Meiko...you did that?"

Meiko shook her head. "No. You did."

"What?" Lily stared at her before looking down at herself. "Me? How? I was about to die..."

"I think," said Meiko, slowly, "your vampire side awoke at the last possible moment. Thank goodness for that, otherwise we'd all be dead."

Lily stared at Meiko. "My...vampire side?" Lily didn't know what to think. She hated vampires. They were monsters. Her father's treatment of her and her mother proved that. Lily trembled, feeling as though something in her was crumbling. She was alive because of the vampire in her. Lily didn't even want to have a vampire side in the first place, but she was only alive because of that vampire side.

Lily put her hands to her head, and Meiko, silent, stood by.

After a long while, during which both of them were silent, Meiko offered her hand to Lily, who grabbed it and shakily stood back onto her feet. She stared at the remains of Oliver and Yuki. She was the one who did such brutal killings. Lily had never killed anyone before. Despite her talk of killing her father, Lily doubted that she would be able to kill him, in the end.

She felt sick and she stumbled away from Meiko and fell to her knees and threw up.

Meiko, considerate, said nothing.

-o-o-o-

Now there was only one left.

His shame of a daughter, Lily the dhampir (a mistake that shouldn't have been born in the first place, an unsightly scar upon the name of Magnus...he thought that she was a stillbirth; that was what the mother, a human whore, told him, but she was lying. Well, Leon would have to pay a visit to her someday...), was dead. Miku, the bait, was to be the next skin to be added to his bloodstained cape. Luka, the fledgling, was the only one left to die.

He watched as Luka struggled to her feet, wobbling slightly. She half-heartedly threw some stakes at Leon, stakes that he easily dodged. Luka then made a dash over to Miku and knelt down before her, checking her condition, and breathing a sigh of relief.

Leon's eyes hardened. Such a pitiful display of sentimentality. Fledglings were so susceptible to human feelings. Luka got back up to her feet and faced Leon, her face stern.

"Well," said Leon, grinning. "Now, you die." He began to undergo a transformation. He had to beg one of the great ancestors to teach him this one as well - the Demonic Transformation, where the vampire could transform into a horrid beast glimpsed in nightmares; an eight foot tall monstrosity, skin a rippling gray-black chitin, wicked spines sprouting from the vertebrae, arms elongated, forming into giant, hideous claws. His face too, warped into something out of a nightmare, eyeless, skin peeled back from the face, glistening face muscles warping and changing, teeth jutting, becoming fangs.

Luka seemed unimpressed, but Leon cared little for what the fledgling thought. This would end now. He brought one claw up to rend the girl to pieces, but when he brought it down, he found to his shock that the girl had his claw clasped easily between her hands.

Impossible. A fledgling could not stop an attack like this. A strong vampire, a very strong vampire, possibly, but a fledgling? Impossible.

Luka made a movement with her hands and immediately Leon felt himself return to his normal, humanoid form, Luka still gripping onto his hand tightly between hers.

"_How_?" he gasped.

Luka gave him an angelic little smile and all at once her arms transformed into that of the Demonic Transformation. Leon gaped at her. His mind seemed to have gone completely blank. He drew his eyes up at the unlit portrait of a great ancestor of vampirism, the one of Ancestor Elluka, and then he looked back at Luka.

The faces in the portrait looked so close, they were practically the same. The only difference was the hairstyle. Horror invaded Leon's being. It couldn't be. Elluka was dead. She couldn't be alive. This 'Luka' couldn't possibly be her. But then, how could a mere fledgling possess the strength to dispel the Demonic Transformation?

"It can't be," Leon said, his words dropping from his lips like stones.

"It only follows that the one who taught you the Demonic Transformation should know how to stop it," said Luka, her voice as sweet as honey.

Leon's wild eyes focused on Luka's, which were slowly turning red. "It can't be. I had to beg Ancestor Elluka to teach me that very same trick. C-could it be..._milady, you really are..._"

Luka, no, Elluka, one of the great ancestors of vampirism, the one who was supposed to be dead, because all of the great ancestors were dead, grinned evilly, her eyes fully red, and that grin was the last thing Count Leon Magnus ever saw.

-o-o-o-

Luka kicked Leon's rapidly rotting body aside in disgust and sighed, a relatively heavy one. Well, there's one person who found out, but he's dead now.

Luka looked over, up at her portrait, before drawing her gaze back down to Miku, who was groaning as her eyes slowly fluttered awake. Luka was at her side in an instant.

"Luka...?" Miku mumbled thickly.

Luka nodded, keeping her hand on her shoulder. "Yes. I'm here. You're safe now."

Miku blinked slowly. "I...helped, right...?"

"Yes," Luka assured her, smiling. "You helped."

Miku smiled and Luka's heart clenched at the sight of it. "That's good..."

Luka had never thought that she would eventually fall prey to love like the other great ancestors of vampirism...she thought that she was too strong for that. After all, she was the only one who was still living. But somehow she had eventually fallen prey to this strange feeling like all the other ones. Miku's blood had been the sweetest, most delectable blood to wash over her tongue, even though Luka had drank the blood of thousands upon thousands of humans over the centuries.

Luka looked at Miku, who was blinking slowly as she tried to reorient herself, and then Miku's eyes shot open.

"Lily!" Miku exclaimed, and she unsteadily got up, Luka hastily supporting her. "Where is she? Is she okay?"

It was of course at that moment when a very worn-looking Lily and Meiko burst into the room. Miku immediately brightened up at the sight of those two, and she ran towards Lily and immediately enveloped her in a hug.

"Thank god you're okay," Miku said into Lily's shoulder. Lily looked a little uncomfortable, but she smiled and patted Miku's back. Luka felt the alien feeling of jealousy run through her at the sight of their closeness, soon enough relieved when Miku pulled back from the hug.

"I take it then that...he's dead," Lily said, eying the body. "So that's my father...I was hoping I would have a chance to talk to him." She frowned.

"He had nothing worthwhile to say," said Luka blandly.

"Oh, and you!" Lily whirled on Luka. "What are you doing here? And...why's Miku here? I told you not to come, Miku..."

"She was kidnapped," said Luka with a huff. "I was here to rescue her."

Lily paled. "She was kidnapped?"

Miku rubbed the back of her head. "Y-yeah, but I'm fine now. It's thanks to Luka. She saved me."

Lily sent a frown at Luka that Luka returned. "Yeah?"

"I think she can be trusted, Lily," said Miku hastily. "She risked her life for me."

Lily exhaled. "Still though. A fledgling who could defeat a vampire like Count Magnus...she's pretty exceptional."

Luka hesitated and opened her mouth before closing it.

Such confessions could be saved for another time, she decided.

-o-o-o-

"So uh," said Miku to Luka a few hours later as the two of them traveled back to Crypton. "You never told me...why you were helping me. Magnus interrupted."

Luka looked at Miku and closed her eyes. It was tempting to confess everything, tempting to tell Miku that she felt as though she had fallen in love with her. Fell in love, an affliction that all the great ancestors suffered from, and died from, eventually; Luka had been a late bloomer. A very late bloomer. Vampire loves happened quickly, yet Luka knew all too well from all of the other great ancestors dying that they were true, true and obsessive, so true that to lose their love was certain death, because life would be unbearable without that special person, chosen by the threads of fate and destiny.

Luka wanted badly to tell Miku this. To tell her that she think she loves her. To kiss her. To take her blood and have Miku want Luka to take her blood.

But not now. It was too soon. Miku wasn't ready yet.

"I helped you because I want to help you," said Luka, honestly.

Miku snorted. "What an answer. Oh, and...if you could tell me...I'm sorry if this is too personal, but...on the day we first met, why couldn't you just go to the government?"

Luka hesitated. The government, unlike vampires, kept close track of vampire movement. Luka had killed a person by drinking too much; she was dizzy with the freedom and ease the blood supplier program brought when it first came out. Undoubtedly the government had a record on her. If Luka were to go to the blood supplier, she would get kicked out, yes, after having her record examined, but...

It was possible that Luka would be revealed as one of the great ancestors of vampirism, Elluka, if her record was examined too much, if someone were to compare the appearances of Luka Megurine of House Karnstein and Elluka.

If that was the case, Luka would be hunted down, for the human government was strong and very wary of old vampires such as Luka, as old vampires were very powerful, so powerful they could walk in daylight.

Which was why Luka had been so generous with her time incense when she gave some to Gumi. She was old enough to amass a lot of time incense, and she was also old enough to not need it anymore.

"I went a little too wild with the blood drinking," said Luka, quietly.

Miku nodded. "...I see."

"You aren't scared of me, right?" Luka looked over at Miku. "I won't hurt you if I can help it."

Miku smiled quietly, although Luka could detect mild unease in her body, in the tiny shifts of her shoulders and arms, mild unease, not fear, but unease.

Of course. Luka was still a vampire, and humans were still after all this time distrustful of them.

"I'm not scared of you," said Miku. "Well, now that this is all over, what are you going to do? Don't worry, I won't report you to the government anymore. You already rescued me and saved my life twice...I suppose I never thanked you for that before, so. Thank you."

Luka accepted the thanks with a nod and thought. True, this was all over now. Luka had no logical reason to visit Miku anymore - her debt was paid in full and the threat that menaced Miku and Lily was gone. For all intents and purposes, her story with them was, logically, over.

But love wasn't logical.

"I like you, Miku," said Luka, bluntly. "I think I would like to spend more time with you. So if it's okay..."

Miku was obviously taken aback. A slight blush colored her cheeks. "I...you like me? You want to spend more time with me?"

"As friends, I mean," Luka added hastily, not wanting to scare Miku off.

"Oh," Miku looked simultaneously relieved and disappointed. "As friends. Okay. I...sure. I'd love to hang out with you."

Luka felt her face break into a genuinely happy grin. "That's great, Miku!"

Miku smiled back and nodded.

For now, this was enough, Luka decided as she looked at Miku's peaceful face. She looked out the window of the train, at the buildings rushing by. It was night, and Miku was beginning to fall asleep.

Luka looked over at Miku and smiled at the sight of her sleeping face.

And then the vampire also closed her eyes as she felt a wave of relaxation wash over her, peaceful and easy and soothing.

* * *

**And...THAT'S A WRAP! For Part 1, lulz. There will be more (after I take a short break). Hope you all are enjoying the story so far :D This is where we start getting into the exciting stuff!**


	6. Part 2

Her nights were scarlet, violent, brutal. She could barely see, but she was moving through dark alleyways, her nose sniffing out the seductive scent of meat. Her quarry was running, but she walked at a slow, assured pace. She knew the streets well. Her prey won't be able to escape.

The alley's silence was broken with the sounds of sobbing pants, of shoes slapping against pavement in a desperate rush to survive. She, calm, patient, only walked steadily towards the sound, unstoppable, focused. Eventually her prey was backed up against a chain-link fence, too high to surmount in time. Whimpering he curled up and stared at her with wet, fearful eyes.

"Please," he wheezed, holding out a hand in supplication. "I don't know what you want, if it's money you can have it, just leave me alone or else I'll...I'll call the Seraphim. You're a vampire, aren't you?"

She smiled, felt it stretch her own features. "A vampire?" she purred. "Do I really look so _commonplace?_ I don't feed on blood."

She paused, and the man's expression slowly dawned into horror. He stuck his hand into his dirty jean pockets, searching, most likely, for a cell phone.

Too slow.

Yukari's grin grew wider, feral, and then she was on him.

-o-o-o-

"Ah!" Yukari awoke with a start, breathing wildly. The coppery taste of blood was still in her mouth, and she felt sick. Disoriented, she almost fell out of bed as she made her way to her bathroom, gasping, heart pumping quick and fast. She pushed the door open and stumbled inside, flicked the switch on. The light stabbed her eyes like a sword and she placed her hand on the cool countertop, steadied herself, stared into the mirror.

Yukari stared back. Her face was paler than usual, her eyes wild, hair mussed. Slowly, her breathing calmed. Slowly, her mind returned to rationality.

"Just a dream," she whispered, running a sweaty hand through her unruly hair. "It was just a dream..." she closed her eyes.

She had been having dreams like that often. Far too often. She didn't know why - after all, Yukari was an ordinary human, wasn't she? She wasn't a vampire, or a werewolf, or a genie, or any one of the many supernaturals that populated the world. These dreams made no sense...perhaps it was just stress. Only stress. Yukari swallowed, hard, and splashed some water on her face. The cold jolt of it woke her up a little more, and sighing she stared at her reflection again. Enigmatic, it gave no answers.

She glanced over at the backlit clock in the room. 6 in the morning. Around time to wake up...Yukari put a cool hand to her forehead, calmed herself, and started preparing for her day.

-o-o-o-

Miku bit into her sandwich as she stared outside the window. The world was blanketed in whiite, snow falling from the cloud-darkened sky. There was condensation on the window now, inhibiting her view of the world outside. The sight of it reminded her of the fog that had covered the area when the genie went after Lily, and it was with a shiver that Miku turned away and focused on her food.

The classroom was mostly quiet, conversation kept to low murmurs. A lot of people had called in sick, probably due to the weather change, so the only people around who were in Miku's friend group was Lily and Yukari. Out of those two, only Lily looked energetic - Yukari looked as though she had barely slept, nibbling at her food distractedly, eyes elsewhere.

"Uh," Lily ventured, "are you okay, Yukari?"

Yukari gave a small jolt, as though snapped out of a daze, and she grinned up at Lily. "Okay? Yeah, I'm fine! Just a little tired, that's all." She glanced around the room. "Pretty empty today, huh?"

"There's some kind of bug going around," Lily said with a shrug. "Can't be helped."

Miku wondered if Lily could even get sick if she was a dhampir. Although the girl had called in sick before, perhaps it was because she had been grappling with whatever Leon sent to assassinate her at the time.

"Yeah," Yukari said. Her voice sounded sleep-fogged and it was with a slow dip of the head when she focused on the food once more.

"Didn't sleep much?" Miku asked.

Yukari laughed hollowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I didn't sleep very well."

Lily frowned. "Why not? Did something happen?"

At that question, a caged expression sped across Yukari's face, her eyes becoming, for a moment, haunted, but it passed too quickly for Miku to focus on it. "Nothing happened. Just, you know, stress. Midterms coming up."

Lily looked completely unconvinced. "Well-" she started, but stopped. She glanced over at Miku, meaningfully.

"Oh. Midterms are...hard," said Miku, not entirely sure of what Lily wanted her to say.

Lily groaned, took out a piece of paper, scribbled something down on it, and passed it over to Miku. It was with some trepidation that Miku took it, her eyes flicking over to Yukari. Yukari was too focused on her food (or on nothing) to notice her friends passing notes in front of her, so Miku flipped over the note and read it.

_Think something weird is happening?_

Miku stared at the note and then stared at Lily, who had turned her attention back to Yukari. What? 'Something weird'? Miku shook her head, writing her reply underneath the neat black letters of Lily's handwriting.

_no Yukari's probably just down because of some family or guy troubles or something and people always get sick this time of year._

She passed it back to Lily. Lily took the note, read it over, scribbled out another reply, passed it to Miku.

_Yukari doesn't even _have_ a boyfriend. Go ask your vampire friend if stuff is happening._

"What are you two passing?" Yukari asked, glancing up from her food. Miku froze.

"Uh," said Miku. "Just. You know. Nothing important."

"We're passing notes about the quiz answers last period," Lily covered. "I had some trouble on the um, proof about primes and square roots."

Yukari blinked. "It's a simple proof by contradiction. Why are you passing it around as a note? That looks so sketch."

"It's easier to write it out on paper," Miku said, and she drew her attention to the note once more. Ask her vampire friend...Miku frowned.

In truth, after the incident at Leon's castle, Miku hadn't really kept in that much contact with Luka. The last time they met up was a two weeks ago, after which Miku was immediately thrown into a whirl of studying for midterms. Not that they don't still text, but still. Miku didn't feel good about merely using Luka as a source of information. Besides, after Leon, Lily was much jumpier than she was before, constantly seeing supernatural threats in things such as squirrels jumping out of trash cans. Most likely this was just her nervousness getting a hold of her again.

Still, it couldn't hurt to ask, Miku guessed. Luka seemed amicable to helping them enough. She sent out a text and waited.

-o-o-o-

"Uh, _hello?"_ Gumi waved her arms around as she paced around the wooden floor of the coven. "There's some shit going down. .Are you _really_ not going to do anything to stop it?"

Sonika sighed, leaning back in her velvet red seat. "Wendigo spirits are difficult to catch. We can't just suck them up into a jar like we do with genies. They're actually pretty intelligent."

"But _because_ of these spirits, we have all this...all this...shit going down!"

"It's not that big of a deal," Luka said as she scrolled through her phone.

"Not that big of a deal?" Gumi laughed. "Thanks to all those, we have all these dead humans. And you know what wendigo spirits do. They possess humans in their sleep and have them...you know...do the wendigo thing."

"The wendigo thing," Sonika said, flatly.

"I'm not going to spell it out, you _know_ what they do. Over time, given enough exposure, the humans become wendigoes themselves. They can send their spirits out and infect more humans."

"How is this our problem?" Luka said. "Let the Seraphims deal with it."

"The Seraphims are an underfunded government group staffed by wannabe heroes," said Gumi. "And the less humans there are, the less blood we get. Since this part of the city is ours, we should be...alert."

"Right, alert..." Luka trailed off once she saw the text from Miku.

_anything going on supernaturally? lily is nervous_

Luka paused. She wasn't entirely sure how to respond to this. In her own estimation, the wendigo problem would fix itself. In her years of unlife, she had seen many of these. Worst case, a few humans become wendigos and had to be put down. If one caught them in the earlier stages of possession, one could even simply extract the spirit and leave the human. It wasn't a problem, certainly not one on the scale that Gumi is proposing. The Seraphim might not be the most organized force, but they were competent enough to know how to deal with a problem on this relatively small scale - murders made by a person possessed are very easy to identify.

The only problem Luka could foresee was that wendigos had been very uncommon over the years, so there wasn't much public awareness about them. Still, there had to be regulations and rules in place for dealing with a problem of this nature in an institution as old as the Seraphim.

_No problems_, Luka texted back. No need to unnecessarily worry the girl.

The reply was fast. _kk. lily was just worried cuz yukari hadnt been sleeping well and ppl r sick lol._

Luka's eyes caught on the middle part of the sentence - _Yukari hadn't been sleeping well._ Luka knew who Yukari was - she had observed Miku enough early on in their relationship to know who she was friends with. Yukari was a cheerful girl with a predilection for the color purple and a love of rabbits. She was also completely ordinary, a human like Miku. If she hadn't been sleeping well, it was possible that she had been targeted by some wendigo spirit.

Except...it was also time for midterms and time for study. Plus, there was some sickness going around with the change of seasons. It was perfectly possible that Yukari could merely be suffering from some bout of cold. There was no need to jump to the worst possible conclusion. After all, out of all the people in the city, what were the odds that Yukari would be targeted? Very slim. Luka sighed and pushed the worry away from her mind. It was nothing.

Probably.

-o-o-o-

"So yeah, she said it's nothing," said Miku to Lily.

Lily's scowl only deepened. "I don't believe that."

Miku sighed. "Come on, Lily. What are the odds that there's some other random supernatural event going on at our school?"

"Pretty high," said Lily. "For one, there are only three other high schools in the city, and we're the biggest."

"What does that have to do with anything if you take in the overall population of the city?"

"Look," Lily snapped, "I'm just worried."

Miku shook her head. "You worry too much."

Lily ran a hand through her hair and exhaled. "I don't buy that there's nothing going on. All these people sick, Yukari acting weird...and you've heard about the murders, right? I didn't bring it up in the classroom since, you know, I don't want to worry Yukari."

Naturally Miku had heard of them. Every night, between the early morning hours of twelve and three, there had been murders, all of them disturbingly similar. The victims would all be disemboweled, their chests burst open. But that was only the beginning - there was more involved that Miku didn't want to think about.

Miku stared down at the ground. "So...so what do you think is happening?"

Lily sighed. "I don't know. These patterns don't match anything I know of, but it's just too weird to _not_ be something supernatural. Closest thing I can think of is a genie or a bunch of vengeful ghosts, but they don't really fit these..."

"Luka said it's nothing," Miku offered.

"Luka can go suck a steak," said Lily. "There's something happening. We just need to find out what."

* * *

**Thanks to Fliers for agreeing to look over this chapter! This begins part 2. **


	7. Chapter 7

Yukari's head drooped, but she was determined to not go to sleep, and so she fought against the fog in her mind and focused on the list she made. Various causes for her nightmares were written down there. She had discounted stress - there was nothing especially pressing in her life right now other than the dreams - and crossed out illness, because she certainly wasn't sick. What did that leave? A list of possible supernatural causes.

This couldn't be, she figured, a dream-eating baku, for she still had her hopes and dreams, and furthermore, she hadn't done anything (or at least, she hoped she hadn't done anything) to attract the attention of one. She wasn't a werewolf, for there were counseling programs for that kind of thing, and Yukari had ran through the checklist of symptoms without spotting a single one that matched.

Maybe they were just dreams, Yukari thought, hoped. Maybe she had read too many horror novels, that was all.

But it wasn't, it couldn't be. Her eyes slowly roved over to the newspapers stacked haphazardly on her desk, articles circled in bright blood red. Murders that coincided with her dreams. Murders, and...

Yukari fought down the bile that rose in her throat. A dream, she told herself, a dream, but if it was truly a dream, then why did she always wake up tasting blood?

How long could a person live without sleep, Yukari wondered, because she never wanted to sleep again.

-o-o-o-

When Miku next saw Lily, it was in a study room at a library with a huge book of folklore. The blonde haired girl was studying it with an intensity that bordered on ferocious. Miku hesitated before walking over.

"Working on homework?" she asked, keeping her voice low.

Lily gave her a look. "Does this look like homework to you?"

"Could be," Miku sat down next to her and started to root through her bag for her notebook and textbook. "I'm doing homework. We have that big problem set-"

"Already done," Lily said, returning her attention to the book. "I don't have time to think about school right now."

Miku winced. "What? School is so important." She huffed out a sigh before opening up her textbook. "You're obsessed."

Lily coughed quietly into her elbow before returning her attention to the book. At this distance, Miku could see that her friend was sniffling a little, and Miku drew back. "Wait, are you sick?"

Lily gave her another look before coughing again, more violently this time. "What do you think? There's a bug spreading."

"I didn't know dhampirs could get sick."

"Well, congratulations, you learned something new. Now look at this," Lily pointed her finger at an entry. "Let's consolidate what we know. There've been these murders at night, violent ones. No knife wounds, it seems to be from teeth."

Miku shuddered. "Yeah, so?"

"I think we're dealing with these...'when-dye-go' things."

Miku craned her head over to look. There was a grotesque image of an emaciated, gaunt, bestial human, lips tattered and bloody as it feasted upon a dead corpse's entrails, tall, twisted antlers growing from its head. "Are you serious? Something like that? If a monster like _that_ showed up on the streets, the Seraphim would get it right away."

"Don't look at the picture, just read the entry," Lily snapped.

Miku did so. Often seen in winter, the wendigo was a malevolent, cannibalistic spirit that possessed humans in dreams, though they were rare, more often seen in the northern United States and Canada than anywhere else in the world. Though they constantly ate, their hunger would never be satisfied, and a wendigo spirit would often bring with them sickness to better aid their hunts. Given enough time, humans would begin transforming into wendigoes themselves, and once they hit that point of no return, the human in them would be gone, replaced by the beast. Miku furrowed her eyebrows. Such a thing was so monstrous she could hardly imagine it actually existing in every day life.

"It's winter," said Lily. "There's a bug spreading, and there's been these cannibalistic murders that occur at night."

Miku shook her head. "But on the entry, it says that they're seen in America. This is Japan!"

Lily shrugged. "Spirits can travel any distance they want. It doesn't matter where. Anyways, I think this is what we're dealing with."

Miku groaned and stared up at the ceiling, tapping her pencil against her graph paper. "You know, I just came here to do math homework." Still, Lily's theory, awful as it may seem, did make some sense. It could just as easily all be coincidence though, and Luka herself said it was nothing.

But what if Luka was wrong? It wasn't as though the vampire was omnipresent. She could have missed something. Judging from how old the book seemed, the wendigo could be some long-forgotten spirit, recently returned from who knows where. If that was the case, then Luka probably wouldn't know anything about it...

"How do people stop it?" Miku asked. "Can we just flush it out like a genie? It's a spirit, isn't it? You can't just...kill it."

Lily frowned as she flipped through the entry. "Yeah. Well, technically, it's half beast and half spirit. It takes on corporeal form at night, but that is also when it's at its most dangerous."

"Wait, if it becomes corporeal at night, how does it possess people? Does it...leave its body somewhere?"

"No, once it happens upon a human host, it becomes a spirit again. Essentially, what the wendigo does is this," Lily pointed her finger at a paragraph of text. "During the day, it 'sleeps' - it leaves its victim and its spirit spreads out, untraceable, in the air. At night, it becomes corporeal and stealthy. Since it's partially a phantom, it can melt through walls, enter homes, and enter people. It needs a body - a sleeping or otherwise unconscious one - and feeds with it, spreading nodes in the possessed body until the body and the spirit become one and the possessed becomes a rampaging, cannibalistic, permanently hungry, permanently awake wendigo. Once it dies, however, it releases not one but two spirits, thus spreading the infection."

Miku blinked as she tried to process all that. "So...how do we stop it?"

"Apparently, silver works..."

Miku sighed. "Silver works for _everything._"

-o-o-o-

"Alright, fledgling, go scout out these places," Gumi said, pointing at three marked locations of the map. "These are probably where the wendigo's possessing people, based on the activity on the map, Go check 'em out."

Luka took the map and raised her eyebrows. "Just me? Alone?"

"Oh, are you lonely?" Gumi teased. "I'd love to keep you company, but I have to meet with a Seraphim today."

Luka frowned and looked at the map again. "What're you meeting a Seraphim for?"

Gumi shrugged. "The easier the humans are on us, the more power we get over the city. Luka, you're a Karnstein now, you should know this. We have to use what advantages we have. So, I have a few Seraphim willing to look the other way, for now. Makes things easier on us."

Luka could see why Gumi was so distrustful of the overall prowess of the Seraphim, if she was apparently manipulating some of them. "Uh, right. Anyways, that's not the issue. One Luka, three places? The wendigo could slip into any one of the houses while I'm not there. Where is everyone?"

Gumi heaved a sigh. "Big House meeting today. It's stupid, I need to get some sense into Sonika's head. We have a big issue here and she's just calling more house meetings. As if debating is going to magically solve the problem."

"Why aren't _we_ invited to the meeting?"

"Uh, let me see, well," Gumi ticked reasons off her fingers, "one, I'm the second in command after Sonika, so I am exempt from three House meetings a year. Taking this one off because I have to keep our relationship with some of the Seraphim congenial, and I need to get _you_ on this job. Second, you're a brand new fledgling, and not only that, you literally just joined House Karnstein. You're going to have to prove yourself before you can take part in any of those meetings, newbie."

"And I prove myself by standing around outside?"

"You prove yourself by helping the family. Now," Gumi checked her watch, more for show than for anything else, "time's a-tickin'. Ten hours before sunrise. Don't want to get burned up, unless you happen to have more time incense."

"Yeah, no," Luka mumbled. She did, but she didn't especially want Gumi to know that. If the green-haired vampire got a whiff of exactly how much time incense Luka had, it would lead to a lot of questions that Luka didn't want to answer. "Go have fun with your Seraphim or whatever."

Gumi smirked. "That, I will do."

-o-o-o-

Luka sighed as she leaned against the fence, staring up at the moon. She checked her watch. She had been waiting in front of Yukari's house for hours, and there was no wendigo in sight. Still, she remembered Miku's worries, and decided to be especially alert about this house. If nothing happened tonight, Luka could safely cross Yukari's place off the list, and Miku would have nothing to worry about. Luka breathed in a deep breath and waited.

"Excuse me," said a voice, and, surprised, Luka turned her head. Standing before her was...Luka racked her memory...Yukari, right, Miku's friend. What was she doing awake at this hour? "Who are you?"

Luka frowned at her and turned away. "None of your business, human. Go back inside."

"Wait," Yukari said, reaching out to grab Luka's sleeve. In the moonlight, Luka could see that she looked terrible, hair mussed, deep bruised eyebags. She looked like she needed sleep, badly. "I can't sleep."

Yukari sounded delirious, and Luka could smell the fear rolling off of her in waves, though there was none towards Luka. It was a mute, aimless fear, a fear afraid of something big and dark and unknown.

"Go back inside," said Luka. "You'll worry your friends."

Yukari shook her head. "You don't understand. I was watching you, you know. From my window. You've been here for _hours_, since midnight. Why? Why are you here? Do you know what's happening to me?"

Luka took a deep breath and turned to face Yukari fully. The girl was shaking. "Look...go to sleep, okay?"

"I can't!" Yukari shouted, so loud and suddenly Luka took a step back. "I can't sleep! If I do, I get these dreams. They're horrible, I kill people in them. And I wake up tasting blood. You're a vampire, aren't you? Don't you know about these things? Why _else_ would you be at my house?"

Luka looked around to see if Yukari had awoken anyone. Nothing. She lowered her voice. "Okay. Okay, calm down." Gently she placed her hands on Yukari's thin shoulders, hesitated. The girl was a nervous wreck. How long had she stayed awake? That was a one-way road to delirium. Give it enough time, and her consciousness would leave and she would end up possessed by the wendigo anyways. A meaningless, irrational protest, like humans do. "Do you know about the murders?"

Yukari nodded. "Of course...the newspapers, it's all over them. I go to sleep and someone dies." Yukari looked up at her house, silent and dark. "Do you want to come in?"

Luka laughed. "Your parents fine with you inviting a vampire inside?"

Yukari stared at her. "They're asleep. They don't have to know. You seem like you know things. My friends are worried...I..." Yukari dug in her pockets and produced a small cellphone, complete with a phone charm of a black rabbit. "Well, a lot of them are sick at home right now, but...but I don't want my friends to worry anymore." Almost absentmindedly, she added, "Lily is worried the most, but she worries a lot anyways."

Yes, from what Luka could see, Lily did seem like the worrying type. The more Yukari talked, the more Luka's certainty grew. This had to be it. Everything matched. The dreams, the frightened behavior - a girl wouldn't deprive herself of sleep out of fear for bad dreams without a very good reason. Might as well spill, Luka figured. "Okay. Have you heard about wendigoes?"

"No," said Yukari. She shivered and looked up at the moon. "Do you want to go inside? It's cold."

Luka had hardly noticed it. "Oh...I suppose it is. Very well then."

"You can come in," said Yukari as she stepped her way back up to the front door. Luka exhaled as she felt the oppressiveness of the house recede, now that she had been fully invited. She walked into the house, quietly, and Yukari closed the door behind her. Luka glanced around. Yukari's home was clean and neat, everything in proper order. There was a television set in the living room, a couch, stacks of DVDs. Yukari slowly made her way up the stairs like a drunkard, her balance out of whack due to her own sleep deprivation.

Luka silently followed after her, eyes flicking around as she automatically catalogued the contents of her home. A normal family, a normal household, a normal daughter. Nothing that would indicate anything out of the ordinary; Yukari was merely a victim of chance.

"Here's my room," said Yukari, unnecessarily, opening a door decorated with purple stars and paper cut-outs in the shape of rabbits. Luka walked inside.

The first thing she noticed were the stacks of newspaper scattered all over Yukari's desk, articles circled in red. The second thing she noticed were cans and cans of extra-strength caffeinated drinks. The third thing she noticed was a large list tacked onto the wall, titled 'Bad Dream Causes', and a line of crossed off possibilities.

Yukari wasn't just scared, Luka saw; she was terrified. The girl moved over to her bed, sat down on it heavily, and stared out the window. From that view, she could see the whole street. No wonder she went outside to meet Luka. Luka looked around for places to sit. The desk chair was overflowing with cans, but there was a large lilac bean bag chair in the corner that Luka decided to sit on. By her feet were books; she picked them up and examined them. Light novels and supernatural romances. Out of curiosity, Luka opened one and skimmed through it. It was a rather salacious novel, full of gushing descriptions of a aristocratic, devilishly handsome vampire playboy named Byron.

"Nice book," said Luka.

Yukari looked over, seemingly too sleepy to care. "Oh...yeah. It was okay."

Luka set the book aside. "You really need to sleep."

Yukari bit her lip and looked outside. "I...I can't. I have to stay awake."

"You're doing more harm than good," said Luka. "Humans can't survive without sleep for too long." She got up and crossed over to the window. "What you are most likely suffering from is possession by a wendigo spirit. It takes corporeal form at night, usually favors one victim..." Luka trailed off. Come to think of it, how far along was Yukari in her possession? Luka looked at the girl. The most obvious sign of it would be nubs of bone on her head, stunted beginnings of wendigo antlers. "Hold on a moment." Luka reached out and put her hand on Yukari's head. There they were - small, barely detectable, but there - protrusions where there shouldn't be protrusions. It wasn't too late yet, but a few more nights...there wasn't much time left.

"What is it?" Yukari asked.

Luka drew her hand away. "You should go to sleep," she said. "I'll keep a look out for the wendigo."

Yukari hesitated. "But..."

"You need to sleep," said Luka, harshly, before softening her voice. "Please. Don't worry your friends even more."

Yukari stared down at her hands. "You'll...protect me?"

Luka nodded.

"Okay," said Yukari, and with a thump she fell on her bed, too exhausted to stay up any longer.

The wendigo must have sensed that, Luka thought, thanks to the nodes of possession it spread in Yukari. It would be coming soon. Luka looked at the digital clock by Yukari's sleeping head. It was half past three in the morning.

Fifteen minutes later, Luka saw it - a rotting skeleton, rips of illusory skin flapping from its bones, tell-tale antlers spouting from its head. Its eyes were set deep within its sockets, glowing a faint yellow in the night. Luka patted herself for weapons. She had none. Yukari's room was also devoid of silver save for the useless cross necklace, standard issue Seraphim junk given to every kid when they turned ten. As if that thing could repel anything stronger than a starving imp.

The window, Luka saw, was tightly locked, a combination lock crudely looped around the handle. Obviously a measure intended to keep the spirit out, but wendigos could pass through walls anyways. Luka cursed. Such a device only hindered her. Yukari's room didn't exactly have much area to fight in, and Luka couldn't be too loud either, otherwise she would wake Yukari's parents. Though Luka had been discovered in her fair share of bedrooms in her years of unlife, this was something completely different.

The wendigo spirit slid in through the wall. The first thing Luka saw her its antlers, then the white dome of its head. Luka sprang into action. She grabbed the wendigo by its horns and tried the obvious way - pushing it out of the wall.

The spirit seemed surprised by Luka's presence, though it hesitated only a second before driving itself fully inside, with so much strength Luka lost grip of its antlers. The wendigo raised its yellow eyes to meet hers. It was crouching, giant, so huge its antlers scraped the ceiling of Yukari's room. It had been, Luka saw, well-fed. Its face was a skull, grinning in an eternal smile, flakes of skin hanging from its teeth. White spirit trails emanated from it, tendrils that wriggled towards the sleeping Yukari.

Luka took stock of her surroundings.

Breaking the window, she figured, would be better than breaking the wall.

She lunged forward at the wendigo, pushing it off the bed. It landed to the floor with a resounding crash. Yukari's brows only knitted a little in consternation as she slept. Luka didn't have time to listen for parents; the wendigo was getting up. Luka could see its heart of ice through its ragged and rotted skin, pumping steadily, rivulets of liquid seeping out from it, evaporating into white spirit-trails that tainted the air. It was positioned before the window.

Luka didn't wait. She ran forward, tackled the beast. It lost its ponderous balance. It solidified, perhaps sensing that it wanted to cause as much mayhem as possible, and its antlers crashed through the windows with a ear-splitting screech. Shards of glass flew. The wendigo and Luka landed on the pavement outside. Luka's fingers scrabbled against rotting folds of flesh. She slipped - a hand shot inbetween the gaps in the wendigo's ribcage. The area around its heart was so cold, a human would suffer frostbite in less than a second.

The beast snorted and grunted, writhing on the ground. The sun was rising. The coldness seeped away, the body underneath Luka dissolving into the air. It had survived, it was resuming its spirit form, and there was nothing Luka could do about it.

By the time the sun had risen fully in the sky, the wendigo had disappeared. Luka staggered to her feet and squinted up at Yukari's room. The window was completely smashed to pieces.

Luka's heart sank. Hopefully Yukari had a good excuse.


	8. Chapter 8

Yukari showed up at school looking more energetic than she had in a while. Gone were the dark eyebags under her eyes, and her previous gloom, while still there, had lifted significantly. She hummed as she took out her pens and paper in preparation for class. A lot more people were in class now too, Miku noticed. Did something happen to the wendigo?

Len, still sniffling from his illness, asked first. 'Something happen, Yukari?"

"I broke the window," said Yukari with a smile. "And now I'm grounded."

Miku blinked. That didn't seem like anything to be happy about. She examined Yukari closely. No sign of her having been in any sort of wendigo attack at the moment - she was still obviously weak, her face pale, the ghost of sleepiness weighing her movements, but she was much better than before. Miku didn't know if Yukari knew about wendigos, but she didn't want to unnecessarily alarm her. "Why'd you break the window?"

"Um," said Yukari. "I was playing baseball."

Miku gave her a look. "You don't even know how to play baseball. Besides, you were sick for a while, weren't you?"

Yukari turned away, busied herself with her books. "I thought it would be nice to learn while I was stuck at home."

-o-o-o-

For lack of anything else to do, Luka skulked around Miku's school, checking on the progress of Yukari. Rin and Len were back, Luka noted. Yukari was more awake and cheerful now - Luka wondered what exactly she told her parents about the broken window.

Really, Luka was just here to kill time, and since Miku didn't exactly know about Luka's capabilities, Luka couldn't reveal herself to her now. It would raise too many questions about how she could walk about in sunlight. Even though it's been such a long time since they had last seen each other...

Luka sighed. They hadn't even really contacted each other in a while, and now, the first thing Miku did was text her about whether or not she knew if anything supernatural was going on? When Luka asked for friendship, she hadn't asked for _this_. But maybe all relationships went through phases like this - not that, Luka hurriedly told herself, she was in a relationship with Miku or anything. Far from it - at this rate, they were rapidly devolving into mere acquaintances.

At the thought of that, Luka frowned. She paced the perimeter of the school, keeping herself out of sight. Mere acquaintances. Was that what they were now? Was that _all_ they were now? But that couldn't be, they had gone through so much. Though, who's to say that that meant they were friends?

Luka checked her watch. Six hours until nightfall. She walked over towards the window of Miku's classroom and glanced inside. They were eating lunch now. Miku's friend, Rin, was talking about something excitedly, waving her arms to punctuate whatever she was saying. Miku was, for some reason, rather focused on Yukari. Her teal eyes were thoughtful and somewhat intent, like those of a determined detective, and Yukari was laughing and apparently brushing away whatever Miku was asking her. Miku heaved a sigh. Then, she looked over at the window. Her eyes widened as she saw Luka.

Luka froze for a moment. Shit. Instinctively she reached into herself for the ability to turn invisible, but she hadn't really been keeping up with her blood intake lately, and using abilities depleted too much energy for her to practically use anyways. Instead she ducked away from the window and pressed her back against the wall. She only half-heartedly berated herself for letting herself get seen - after all, she hadn't talked to Miku in such a long time that a part of her wanted to be seen.

Luka's phone vibrated in her pocket. She checked it. Miku had texted her.

_omg, whatre you doing here? its daytime!_

Luka answered:_ I had time incense. I'm checking on Yukari._

There was a pause. _why?_

_There's a problem._ Luka hesitated. Should she tell her? But, Luka supposed, if Lily already had a hunch that something supernatural was happening, she probably told Miku already. In fact, Miku probably already knew everything, judging by how she was apparently interrogating Yukari earlier._ Do you know about wendigos?_

There was another pause, longer this time. When Luka's phone shook with another message, Luka immediately opened it.

_ic. do u want 2 meet up after school?_

-o-o-o-

"Oh," said Yukari, near instantly once she saw Luka. She turned to Miku and clapped her hands together. "That's the vampire that saved me last night!"

Luka smiled at Yukari and nodded. "Glad to see you're doing better, Yukari. Was it okay for your parents when they saw the window?"

Yukari grinned and shook her head. "No, they grounded me. But it's okay. If it wasn't for you, I would've just tried to stay awake forever."

Miku blinked as she tried to keep up with the conversation. Luka had been with Yukari before? When? Yukari didn't say anything about that when Miku was asking her about things on the way here. When Miku confronted her with her knowledge of the wendigo after she received Luka's text, all Yukari had told her was that it was true, that in fact a wendigo had been haunting her, but now she was safe from it. No mention of any sort of vampire. Why would Yukari even try to hide the fact that Luka saved her? Was she...

_No,_ Miku told herself. That was a bad road for her thoughts to go down. Better to just ask Luka directly. "How do you know Yukari?"

Luka turned to look at her, eyes faintly amused. Despite herself, Miku felt the side of her neck itch, even though the bite marks had disappeared by now. She resisted the urge to scratch it.

Yukari answered for her. "She was just standing outside my house last night. That's how we met," Yukari shrugged. "But Miku, you know Luka? How?"

Luka was standing outside of Yukari's house? Miku's mind was caught between that unsettling thought and the question, so all she could muster was a lame stammer.

Apparently Luka noticed Miku's distress, for she came to the rescue. "We worked together on a supernatural issue your friend Lily had."

Wait, what? There was a lot more to the story than just that. The way Luka phrased it had made it sound as though they were nothing more than business acquaintances, which wasn't - couldn't - be true. Miku stared at Luka, silently appalled, though if Luka noticed, she gave no indication.

Yukari's eyebrows furrowed. "W-wait a minute, Lily had an issue too? What happened to her?" Her gaze swung towards Miku. "Why didn't you two tell us?"

Miku frowned. "It's just...it's hard to talk about these things. You didn't want to tell me about the wendigo either, right?" Then, without thinking, she added, "And even when you _did_ tell me about the wendigo, you didn't tell me about Luka." Her voice came out harsher than she intended it to. Miku winced inwardly when she heard herself.

Yukari blinked, surprised by the sudden vehemence in Miku's voice. "Um, okay. I get it. Well...now that we're all in the know about each other, what happened to Lily?"

"Lily's..." Luka hesitated. "You can ask her about it. It's a little complicated. Anyways," her tone turned businesslike, "we have to think of some way of dealing with the wendigo. It's still alive, so it will probably come for Yukari again tonight. The vampires are aware of this issue, though not too many are actually concerned about it."

"What? But...why?" Yukari asked.

Luka smiled. "Well, this is something that principally affects humans. It hasn't reached the level where vampires would be worried about this affecting our, um, blood supply."

Miku had the sudden realization that this probably meant that Luka had been drinking other people's blood in the time between Leon and now. Her gut clenched and she stared at the floor.

"Oh," Yukari winced. "I see. So that's why you were standing outside my house?"

"Right, I was assigned by one of the higher-ups to monitor the situation. Speaking of which," Luka put a hand to her chin, "she'll probably want to meet you."

-o-o-o-

"Why are you coming along with us..." Luka sighed once she saw the sniffling, coughing Lily. "You're obviously sick. Go home and get some rest."

Lily glared at Luka. "If you think," she coughed once, "that I'm going to let my friends walk into a blood coven on their own," she coughed again, "you have another thing coming."

Luka frowned as she glanced up and down Lily. "...right. And what'll you do to help your friends? Sneeze on them? Miku," Luka turned towards her, "honestly, why is she here?"

"I don't know-" Miku began, but Yukari interrupted.

"I texted her asking about what happened to her, and once I brought up Luka and the fact that we'll be going to the blood coven, Lily said she wanted to go right away."

"Ah," Luka sighed. "Well then, follow me." She turned around and started walking down the street.

It was a cool, crisp winter night, and their feet crunched against snow. They had met up at the bookstore near Yukari's house, and were headed towards the financial district. Tall glass buildings glittered around them, lit up in the night, stock prices scrolling on the sides. Cars honked and rushed. Miku glanced around. She didn't spend much time in the financial district, so seeing it at night was a strange new experience for her. She wondered where exactly the blood coven was; for some reason, she didn't expect it to be in a place as fine as this. Though, perhaps it was only to be expected - House Karnstein was one of the more lucrative clans out there.

Luka stopped in front of a large, modern apartment building, its front almost completely glass. "Here we are."

Lily squinted at it. "Is this where you live or something? Fancy place."

"The main meeting area is on the top floor," Luka said, walking through the rotating doors, heading for the elevators. Miku tried to catch as much of a glimpse of the building as possible. A huge television screen dominated the lobby, showing, inexplicably, underwater nature scenes. The interior was also surprisingly crowded, groups of people - humans, from what Miku could tell - milling around and watching the television. There was a gap in the middle of the room, from which Miku could see what seemed like a miniature mall. The walls were paneled in wood, the ceiling was high, and well-dressed men in suits manned the counter.

"What is this place?" Miku asked. "Is this some kind of vampire-only place?"

"It's a normal apartment building," Luka answered. "We just inhabit the upper floors."

"Like bats," Lily mumbled. The four of them stepped into the predictably spacious elevator, the back of it mirrored, the sides of it a cool glass. Luka pressed the button for the fifty-eighth floor and they shot up. The elevator doors opened to darkness, a sharp contrast to the brightness of the lobby below. Luka walked out, followed by everyone else. Miku felt her feet sink into a plush rug. She sniffed the air. It smelled faintly of incense.

"It's so dark in here," Yukari said. "I can't see a thing."

"Really?" Lily sounded surprised. "I can see fine."

"You're a dhampir," Miku pointed out. The darkness was oppressive - she could just barely see Luka's back. "I can't see anything." There was a very real possibility of her getting lost altogether if she was to lose sight of Luka.

Then, she felt Luka's hand, cool and gentle, on her wrist. "We're almost there," said Luka. Miku suppressed a not-unpleasant shiver. "Gumi usually spends her time in one of the game rooms."

"Game rooms," Lily repeated, and then she coughed again.

"Right," said Luka. "Here we are."

Miku felt Luka lean forward, heard the sound of a door being pushed open, rubbing against the carpet. Light escaped from the crack of the door. They went in.

The interior of the room was lit by ornate lamps. There was a pool table to the side, several dark paintings hanging on the wall, an armchair, a bookshelf, and, incongruously, a Dance Dance Revolution machine that some green-haired girl was energetically dancing on, holding onto the rail behind her as her feet flew. She looked vaguely familiar.

"Hey," said Luka, "I brought some guests."

"I know," the girl answered, eyes fixed on the screen. "I smelled them the moment you all got out of the elevator." She finished the song, then flipped herself around with such agility Miku was left gaping. The girl grinned at her. "Oh, I remember you. You're that human Luka brought with her to the club some time ago." She nodded towards Luka. "You two have a thing?"

Miku's face immediately turned red, though before either of them could answer, the girl turned her attention to Yukari and Lily. "So! What're your names? Introduce yourselves, please. Don't be shy," she grinned, showing very visible fangs. "I won't bite, unless you ask me to."

"I-I'm Yukari," Yukari stammered.

Lily glared at her. "I'm not introducing myself until you introduce yourself first."

The girl glanced over at Lily. "If you insist. My name is Gumi. What's yours..." Gumi trailed off. Her eyes narrowed and she vaulted over the rail, landing on the floor near-soundlessly. She walked closer to Lily, green eyes intent. Lily took a step back.

"Wait," Lily said, thrusting her hands out, a barrier. "Don't get close."

Gumi ignored Lily's protest and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her close to her. She took a deep breath. Lily's eyes widened and she hurriedly pulled away from Gumi, who now looked rather thoughtful.

"Wh-what the hell?" Lily stammered. "What was that for?"

"You're not human," Gumi said, slowly, "but you're not a vampire either..." She turned towards Luka. "Making friends with dhampirs now?"

"Oh, well, you know," Luka shrugged.

Gumi raised her eyebrows. "You're an interesting fledgling." She turned back towards Lily, grinning. "I've never met a dhampir in the flesh before. Tell me," she cocked her head to the side, "do you drink blood?"

"Of course not," Lily said, her voice icy and disdainful, although the effect of that was ruined when she immediately started coughing.

Gumi laughed. "Where did you find her, Luka? She's adorable." She turned back towards Lily. "What's your name? I introduced myself, so fair is fair."

Lily, face faintly red, looked away. "I'm...Lily," she muttered.

"Lily and Yukari," Gumi repeated. She glanced over at Miku. "I don't think I ever got yours, even though we've met before."

"Oh, um, I'm Miku."

"Right. So," said Gumi, turning towards Yukari, "did you know that you smell like wendigo?"

Yukari looked down. "Yes. Well, I didn't know I smelled like one, but-"

"Right, so you know what's happening," said Gumi. "The wendigo will come for you again tonight." She turned towards Luka. "Now that she's here, of course, this should be easy."

"Easy?" Yukari asked, rather hopefully.

Gumi nodded. "Easy. If you just sleep over here tonight, we can take care of it. Nip the infestation in the bud."

Yukari paled. "I have to...sleep in a blood coven?" Uneasily her fingers touched her neck.

"Relax," said Gumi. "We're all well-fed here. You won't be harmed."

Well-fed? What did that mean? Miku turned to look at Luka. Luka avoided her gaze.

"Right..." said Yukari, doubtfully, and Lily stepped up.

"I'll stay here too," she said.

Gumi gave her a dour look. "You? You're sick."

Lily scowled. "I'm not letting my friend stay here alone. I don't know what could happen here."

Gumi smirked. "Oh really? Well, I'll tell you straight out, the price for a human staying here is some blood. You're half-human, so you'll get a discount. Of course, I'll be more than happy to get some more from you, if you want..."

Lily clapped a hand over her throat. "That's not funny."

"It's not a joke," Gumi replied. "Hotels charge money. Vampires charge blood. Yukari gets free admission because she'll be helping us out with the wendigo. You, however, are a sick half-human whose best attack is probably sneezing on the monster, so you will have to pay."

"Do I have to pay as well?" Miku asked. "I want to stay with Yukari too."

Gumi magnanimously spread her arms. "Since you're our newest fledgling's squeeze, I'll be generous and say you can stay for free. Of course," her green eyes darted over to Luka, "I'm sure Luka would be more than happy to receive your price, if you would like to donate...?"

Gumi's words brought a rush of memory to Miku - Luka drinking her blood, the heady addictiveness of it. Miku bit her lip and said nothing.

"Well," Gumi clapped her hands together. "Yukari, you can stay in our largest guest bedroom. It has a huge window that offers a beautiful view of the city; that way you can see your wendigo coming from a mile away. There's a service rope. Pull it when you see it coming. Lily, I'll put you in the room next to hers. Miku, you can sleep in Luka's room."

"H-hold it," Luka broke in. "What?"

Gumi glanced at her. "Well, we only have so many guest rooms. Besides, it's not like you're going to sleep with her." She smiled. "Everyone's agreed? Good. Luka can show you to your rooms. Lily, come with me for a bit."

Lily visibly flinched at that, before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, she nodded and followed Gumi out into the hallway. Yukari, Luka, and Miku stared after her.

Miku broke the silence. "Is she going to..."

Luka shook her head. "It's not like that," she said. "We just prick them with a needle. It's not like we actually suck the blood ourselves. There are, um, connotations with that."

"Oh," Yukari looked visibly relieved. "That's good."

Luka nodded. "Okay. Follow me, I'll show you to your rooms."

-o-o-o-

Luka's room was surprisingly small. After Luka dropped off Yukari, she took Miku here, and standing at the doorway, Miku looked around. It was rather spare, especially compared to how nice the apartment building and Yukari's guest room looked. There was little more than a bed and a closet.

"It's..." Miku searched her mind for words.

Luka smiled. "You can say it. It's tiny, isn't it?"

"...yeah."

"I'm new, so I don't get any fancy rooms," Luka explained. "I still have to prove myself."

Miku nodded. That made sense. Still, despite Luka's current easy manner, there was an awkwardness in the air, stifling. Memories of the times they spent together crowded the room, filling the atmosphere with implications. Miku's neck was itching horribly now, though whether it was actually itchy or some kind of psychological trick, Miku didn't know. There was a deep, gaping desire in her heart for _something_, though what that something was was a mystery.

"Vampires sleep in beds?" Miku asked.

Luka nodded. "We can sleep anywhere. Coffins are better because they have a lid and can keep out sunlight, but...beds are fine. See how there are no windows? No chance of sunlight getting in."

Miku's eyebrows furrowed. "But from outside, this building is all glass and windows..."

"Top floor has no windows, save for some of the guest rooms for humans."

"Um, okay," Miku mumbled.

There was a silence. It felt as though Miku's neck was pulsing. She was extremely aware of her own blood flowing through her body. She clenched her hands into fists in an attempt to distract herself.

"Are you alright?" Luka asked. Miku looked up. Luka was staring at her intently, and Miku quickly looked away.

"I'm fine," she said. "I just feel...sleepy."

"Uh huh," said Luka. "Well," she swept her arm out, "you can use the bed if you like. I won't be sleeping. You have midterms now, right?"

"Yeah," Miku said. She gave a start when she felt cool fingers on her shoulder.

"Then you should rest," said Luka.

The air in the room seemed stifling. "I, um, I know."

Luka's hand retreated. "Alright. I'll go now, then."

Before Miku knew it herself, she had grabbed Luka by her arm. "Wait."

Luka stopped. "What is it?"

"I..." Miku began, before she trailed off. Why _did_ she stop Luka, anyways? Her mind was empty. All she wanted was for Luka to stay with her for a while longer - she hadn't seen her in weeks, and all they talked about today was supernatural stuff, nothing else. Miku wanted to talk about more, but she didn't know how to approach it. What could an ordinary teenager talk about with a vampire? Words, unbidden, stumbled out of Miku's mouth. "I...earlier, when we were talking to Yukari about how we met, why did you say we just worked on Lily's supernatural case together?"

Luka blinked. "Well, it's the truth."

"That's not _all_ the truth," Miku protested. "There's more. We didn't just..._work_ together. I thought we're...we're..." Miku trailed off. What were they then, her mind asked her. "...friends," she finished, lamely. The word hung there in the air, inadequate.

"We _are_ friends," said Luka.

Miku bit her lip, suddenly feeling very stupid. "...nevermind then."

"What, did you want me to tell her about my sucking your blood?" Luka asked, her voice tinged with annoyance. "Just drop that news on her?"

Miku felt her face heat up. "N-no."

"That's what I thought, so I didn't bring it up," said Luka.

"Does this mean..." Miku said, slowly, "you don't...you aren't going to..." She couldn't quite bring herself to finish the sentence - she was embarrassed enough as it was. Luka's skin was cool under her fingers.

"Aren't going to what?"

"...suck my blood," Miku mumbled, all in a rush, words blurring together.

There was nothing but dead silence in the room. Miku studied the pattern of the carpet. She couldn't bring herself to look up at Luka's face.

"You should go to sleep," said Luka at last, pulling her arm out of Miku's grasp.

"But," Miku protested, and Luka turned.

"What do you _want_, Miku?" Luka asked, her expression dark. She stalked closer to Miku. "Before, you didn't even want me to do it. You just did it to save your friend Lily, right?" Luka grabbed Miku by the wrist and pulled her close to her before putting her face by her throat. Miku shivered; she could feel Luka's cool breath on the side of her neck. The itching intensified, as though her blood was clamoring to get out of her skin. "Will this make you happy? Is this what you want now?"

Miku remained silent. Putting a voice to her answer was something beyond her. She only closed her eyes. Her heart was hammering fast, fast, fast. The two of them hung, suspended, for a moment too short and too long.

Then, Luka let go and took a step back. Miku caught a glimpse of red in her eyes, but Luka looked away too fast for her to be sure. There was another silence, heavy and dark, in the room, one that Luka broke.

"...I'm sorry," Luka said. "I..." She passed a hand over her face and sighed. "You...should go to sleep."

"O...okay," said Miku, still trying to process what had just happened. Still, she knew she had to apologize. "I'm sorry, I didn't know what..."

"It's fine," said Luka, quickly. "Look, I...well, I'm sorry too. Get some rest, I'll, um, I'll see you later."

With that, she was gone. Miku slumped onto the bed, dazed. What had just happened? She held a hand over her heart and waited, slowly, for her pulse to calm.


	9. Chapter 9

It took all of Luka's self-control to not slam the door behind her. Thirst was bubbling in her veins, the memory of the taste of Miku's blood sharp and present on her tongue. Luka shook her head, trying to clear it. She had to take things slow, she recognized, but what did Miku want? Why did she ask her that? Was she scared of Luka randomly taking her blood? Did she really trust Luka so little that she thought she would do that? Not that Luka could blame her; earlier, when her feelings for Miku were confused, she had been...irresponsible, with how she demanded blood.

Luka clenched her hands into fists, hard, trying to distract herself with the pain. She wouldn't do that anymore, though; they were friends, and Luka cared too much about Miku to essentially _bully_ her into letting her drink her blood. It hurt, but at the same time, she _wanted,_ so badly. She hadn't really fed on any blood since the Manticore of Legion, as the beast's blood was so powerful that it was able to keep Luka running for a while, but even that had limits. Time was running out. She would have to feed again soon, somehow.

But there was nothing she could do about it now. Luka exhaled and walked faster, diverting her pent-up energy into something more productive. She was rounding the corner when she heard Gumi call her, and Luka glanced over at her. The green-haired girl was smiling, leaning against the wall. Luka went over to her.

"Did you get Lily's blood?" she asked.

Gumi nodded. "Of course."

Luka hesitated. "You didn't...bite her, did you?"

Gumi laughed. "Come on. Who do you think I am? Funny though, that dhampir thought I was about to bite her right up until I pricked her with the needle. Anyways," Gumi's face grew serious, "when do you think the wendigo will come?"

"I don't know, but Yukari has the service rope if anything..." Luka trailed off, eyes wide as a realization made its way into her mind.

"If anything?" Gumi asked. "What's the problem?"

"The wendigo only appears when she's asleep."

"Yeah...so?"

"So?" Luka could hardly believe her ears, as well as their own stupidity. "She wouldn't even be able to _pull _the service rope because she's _sleeping!"_

Gumi stared at her, but it was only for a split second before the two of them turned and started running for Yukari's room.

-o-o-o-

They burst in fearing the worst. However, what they saw instead was a wide-awake Yukari, who, upon hearing Gumi and Luka practically break open the door, gave a start and stared at them, eyes wide. In her hands was a phone - she had apparently been playing some kind of puzzle game.

"Wh-what is it?" she stammered.

Luka heaved a sigh of relief and walked over to the window. The city outside was vast and dark, a labyrinth of streets and alleys. "The wendigo only appears when you're asleep."

"Yeah..." Yukari said, slowly. "What about that?"

"What she means is that the service rope we gave you might as well not exist for all the good it's going to do you," Gumi sighed. "Nothing for it, then. We'll have to keep watch over you."

Yukari blinked. "Oh. Okay. That's fine," she smiled. "Luka protected me last night, so I trust her." She put the phone on the bedside table. "Good night, then."

Gumi looked at Luka with a raised eyebrow. "Really, Luka? Glad to hear. Night, Yukari."

"Night," Luka said, scanning the outside for any sign of the wendigo. For a while, no one spoke, but then Gumi crossed over and flicked off the light, plunging the room in darkness. With the light of the city still visible, the moon a yellow scratch in the sky, the room was illuminated in a soft blue.

"I think she's sleeping," said Gumi.

Luka could tell that herself by the rhythmic rise and fall of Yukari's breathing. "I think so too."

"So, what, how long will it take for it to get here?"

"Not long," said Luka. "It arrived in fifteen minutes or so last night."

"You're pretty on the ball for a fledgling, aren't you?" asked Gumi. "Most fledglings are out of control the first few years. Can't control their bloodlust or their powers."

Luka didn't turn around. "Yeah, I was, um, brought up in a strict family when I was young. My father was in the military." It was true, although it was so long ago that Luka barely remembered anything at all. Her years as a human were so few in comparison to how long she spent as a vampire that it was easy to forget that she had ever been human at all.

Gumi sighed. "That doesn't explain anything. You're a very interesting fledgling...making friends with so many humans without giving in to drinking all of their blood? You don't even drink that much blood in general. Most fledglings are completely insatiable. You don't have their appetite..."

Luka turned. Gumi's eyes were slightly narrowed, and the green haired girl paused a bit before continuing. "You have the appetite of a much older vampire. You're pretty mature for your age, aren't you?"

Luka forced a laugh. "Yeah, my friends back when I was human used to say I was pretty mature."

Gumi didn't smile, only staring at Luka so intently that for a moment Luka thought, absurdly, that Gumi could see right through her, could tell who she actually was. but then Gumi broke the silence with a slow "I see".

"Yeah," said Luka. "I..." She trailed off once she saw how Gumi's eyes had gone wide, and quickly Luka whirled around only to stare right at the eternally grinning face of the wendigo.

"Shit!" Luka stumbled back, hands instinctively searching for weapons before she realized that whatever weapons she would have would be useless, anyways - silver was anathema to vampires too, and there was little Luka could do but to try to grab the creature's cold, cold heart.

The wendigo pushed into the room, skeletal body melting through the slick glass of the window. When it was fully in the room, its spirit trails lit the room in an eerie white light. Crouching, it surveyed the room, head half-lifted, as if scenting out prey, though its nose was little more than a hole. A skeletal hand covered its heart.

"Keep it away from Yukari," Gumi ordered.

Easier said than done, Luka thought as the wendigo shifted its bulk over to the sleeping human. Perhaps it was hungrier today, for while its main body seemed smaller, the wisps of spirit trails it emitted were larger, wriggling towards Yukari as though she was some kind of magnet. Luka ran over to it and tackled it again. The wendigo swayed, fell onto the floor. Once again, Luka thrust her hand into the beast's ribcage, shivered at the sudden decrease in temperature before the wendigo writhed and grabbed onto her wrist with an icy, skeletal hand. The temperature around its heart decreased even more.

The wendigo was, Luka realized, trying to freeze Luka's hand inside its chest. Quickly Luka tried to pull her hand out, but the wendigo was holding onto her wrist too tightly for her to move. Ice began to cover her fingers. The wendigo staggered back up. Luka's feet hung in the air, suspended, before she found footing on the wendigo's pelvic bone. Gumi leapt onto the bed and Luka felt Gumi grab her by the ankles. The vampire pulled, a single strong yank that shattered the ice that kept Luka tethered to the wendigo, that pulled both Luka and the wendigo, which was still holding onto Luka's wrist, forward. The three of them landed on the floor, Luka's face smashed up against the wendigo's ribs. Waves of chill and cold washed over her.

"That went well," Gumi mumbled from under Luka.

Luka said nothing. She grabbed the wendigo by its shoulders and pushed it off of her. The wendigo reeled back against the wall, and Luka rolled off of Gumi and leapt back onto her feet. Her eyes flicked over to Yukari. Still safe. Once the wendigo was here, there was little chance of Yukari waking up - one of its powers was suppression of consciousness in its victims.

"Pin back its arms and I'll grab the heart," Luka ordered.

Gumi stared at her for a moment, questions clearly evident in her eyes, before she dismissed them and ran forward. The wendigo, apparently anticipating her movements, ducked its head and swept its antlers in an attempt to trip Gumi up. The vampire anticipated it, leapt over them, grabbed onto it for leverage before vaulting herself up to the creature's back. Hooking her feet in the back of its ribcage, Gumi grabbed the beast's arms. The wendigo growled and tried to move its arms, but Gumi held fast.

"Hurry up," Gumi grunted, and Luka nodded and sprinted over towards the wendigo. She practically threw her arm into the frozen cavity of the wendigo's chest. Her hand closed around its heart, so cold she could hardly feel anything, and pulled. The heart stuck fast. The wendigo's brute strength was prevailing over Gumi's. Luka squeezed her eyes shut, reached deep inside herself for that well of power, before she realized, with a stomach-churning jolt, that she hadn't fed on anything in a long time. The Manticore of Legion's blood alone had been enough to sustain her for months, and she had underestimated the amount of strength that fighting the wendigo would require.

"What's the problem?" Gumi shouted. "Hurry up and take it out!"

Luka gathered up her remaining strength and pulled. The heart loosened from the wendigo's chest with a sickening and disturbingly organic crunch. Luka fell backwards with the force of it, narrowly avoiding the wendigo's arms as it freed itself from Gumi's grasp to grab at her. Luka landed on the ground with an 'oof' that rushed all the strength from her body, and stars flooded her vision. The energy required to pull the heart out was too much. She was so thirsty...it was as bad as the time she first met Miku.

The wendigo let out a roar, a subhuman screech, and flung Gumi off of itself before charging towards Luka. Luka scrambled to her feet, clutching the heart close to herself. It was too hard to smash, she sensed - even if she dropped it from the fifty-sixth floor, the heart would remain intact. Luka threw herself to the side, dodging the wendigo's antlers. It had solidified itself and smashed through the wall. When it drew its head back, there was a torn painting of a boat hanging from one of its antlers.

"Oh _shit,_ property damage," Gumi groaned, sitting up from where the wendigo had thrown her.

"The hell happened?" Lily had (unnecessarily) opened the door and was staring at the hole in the wall. She coughed into her arm.

"The wendigo," Luka said. She grabbed Lily and pushed her aside as the wendigo made another charge. The frozen heart was beginning to ice over Luka's left arm. "We need to heat up its heart."

Lily stared at its heart and reached out a hand, but Luka batted it away. "Too cold for you, you'll get your arm frozen off. Let's go."

With that, she turned and ran down the narrow corridor towards one of the living rooms, the wendigo howling after her, smashing into walls, paintings, scratching long grooves on the walls with its antlers. Luka's strength was beginning to run out; even the oldest vampires required blood to function effectively. For a moment, she thought of Miku - she was so close, Luka could practically _smell_ her from here, tempting and sweet, though she pushed the thought from her mind. Panting, Luka skidded into the living room. Her eyes lit onto the fireplace.

It was unlit. Luka cursed and whirled around. The wendigo was squeezing through the doorway, its bulk crumpling the wood around it. Splinters stuck onto the ragged strips of skin that still hung to it, wood dust coating its bones. That was the only exit. Luka's eyes darted around. Folly of the vampires; there were no windows, so as to prevent sunlight, nothing save for some armchairs, tables, and bookshelves.

The cold was seeping into her body now. Haphazardly, Luka grabbed newspaper, balled it up, threw it into the fireplace, swept kindling on top in as close an approximation of a grid as possible, and grabbed the lighter that lay by the grate. She flicked it on.

Nothing happened.

Luka stared at it in disbelief, her thumb flicking the lighter on over and over, but it still remained unlit. Then, it hit her - the frozen heart in her arms was giving off so much cold that the lighter wouldn't work.

Luka dropped the lighter and turned around. The wendigo was closer now, having successfully struggled its way through the door frame, was advancing on her with slow, measured movements. Luka strafed around it, then she ran over towards the exit.

"Gumi!" she shouted, but Gumi was there already, wincing at Luka's volume.

"I just got here, calm down," Gumi said, panting slightly, green eyes flicking over to the wendigo before her gaze stopped at Luka. Her eyes widened. "Luka, you're _covered_ in ice. Can you even move your arm?"

Luka waved her right arm around. "This one, yes. I need to melt this. Start a fire."

Gumi frowned, glancing over at the wendigo. Luka, reading her hesitation, snapped, "I already set up everything, you just need to light it."

With a nod, Gumi ran into the room, ducked under the wendigo's swipe, flicked on the lighter and lit the fire. Flames flickered to life.

"It's gonna take a while for it to catch!" Gumi shouted over to Luka.

Luka slumped against the wall, the ice chilling through her bones. "Fine," she said. She could feel the cold creeping up to her shoulder now. In the distance, she heard some violent coughing and sure enough, Lily caught up, her nose red, sniffling, looking for all the world like someone who should be resting in bed.

"What are you doing up?" Luka hissed. "Go back to bed. You're sick!"

Lily coughed and stared at the heart. "How're you going to get rid of that? You can't use silver."

Luka jerked her head in the direction of the fire. "Gonna dump it in there."

Lily barked out a laugh. "You kidding me? That heart is so cold, it'll take ages for the fire to melt it."

Luka's nerves, frayed from hunger, exhaustion, and frustration, were at their limit. "What _else_ are we supposed to do?"

Lily's eyes flicked down to the heart. "Silver. It just breaks apart at silver." She laughed again, one that was tinged with fever. "Silver works for _everything._ That's what Miku said."

Luka stared at her. "Well, silver works, but in case you haven't noticed, we're vampires."

"The fire's ready!" Gumi barreled out of the room. "Incoming wendigo!"

Luka ducked down, dodging a sweep of antlers, pulling Lily down with her. The dazed dhampir fell onto the ground with another cough. Luka felt a flush of irritation in her chest. What was Lily even _doing_ here? She was too sick to help.

"You, go back to your room," Luka snapped. "We'll take care of this." She got up to her feet, her limbs weighed by tiredness. Bloodlust was gnawing away at the back of her mind. Luka pushed it away. Not now. She couldn't lose control of herself now.

Lily stared at her. "Your eyes..."

Luka didn't stick around to listen to the rest of the sentence. She ran forward towards the fire. With her other hand, she grabbed the heart, now thoroughly encased in a shard of ice that almost completely enclosed Luka's left arm, and with a grunt ripped it out. The ice shattered with a crack that sounded like a breaking bone. Luka didn't stop to dwell on the pain. She pitched the heart into the roaring fire.

The wendigo screamed behind her, falling onto the ground, writhing. Luka, panting, continued to stare at the heart. It was beginning to melt, shrinking slightly in the fire. However...Luka's tired eyes fixated themselves on the size of the heart. The fire was shrinking too. As Lily had said...the coldness of the heart was too much; it would take too long for the heart to melt.

"Shit," Luka breathed. The hunger, ever-present, gnawed at her once more. There was Miku, so close by in her room. It wouldn't hurt if Luka took a little blood from her again. It was only a fair price, her mind giggled, for providing protection for her friend Yukari.

"Shut up," Luka told herself. Things were...things were different back then. She couldn't just do that now. She had to...she had to...

She had to what? Luka couldn't remember. After all, what was so wrong about drinking Miku's blood? It was only a little bit, and Luka was so hungry. What was stopping her, then? Besides, didn't Miku want her to, before? Her heart was beating so fast, her blood fresh and sweet. It was a victimless crime; in fact, it wasn't a crime at all. What was wrong with it?

Luka, eyes glassed, staggered up to her feet. Now that she thought about it, it all made logical sense. She was Elluka, one of the great ancestors of vampirism; blood was her birthright. Nothing stopped her from taking blood from whoever she wanted before. What was the problem now? Absolutely nothing. There was no problem at all. Besides, it was a small price to pay to prevent Miku's precious friend from becoming a wendigo herself.

She walked over to the exit of the room, Gumi and Lily staring at her. The wendigo barely phased into her consciousness. On her way out, Gumi grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Hold it, Luka," she said, "where are you going?"

"Your eyes are _completely_ red," Lily broke in.

"I'm just going to get some blood," said Luka.

Gumi stared at her before shaking her head. "Are you crazy? Do you _really_ think that this is the time for that?"

"The fire is going out," Lily said. "We have to do something."

Gumi shook her head, again. "What are _you_ going to do?"

Lily glared at her. "I came prepared." She started running, an unbalanced, feverish dash, down the corridor.

Gumi groaned. "Shit. This just isn't my day. Where are you going to get blood?"

"I can just take Miku's," Luka said.

Gumi laughed, though she stopped once she saw Luka's expression. "You're...not kidding. Are you shitting me? You can't just do that."

Luka growled. "Why not-" She stopped abruptly once she smelled it, the tantalizingly sweet scent of Miku. Her eyes widened. At this distance she could practically hear Miku's heartbeat.

"Lily?" Gumi's voice was thick with disbelief. "Are you _insane?_ You can't just bring Miku here! Luka's under bloodlust!"

Lily coughed. "She's the only one here who's not sick and who can wield silver."

Luka felt a violent revulsion in her gut, a churning sensation at the sight of the silver dagger Miku held in her hand. Miku was staring at Luka for some reason, her teal eyes wide.

"Luka," Miku stammered, "are...are you okay?"

"She's _very_ hungry, don't come near her," said Gumi, grabbing Luka and holding her back.

Miku stared down at the dagger in her hands, and then she looked over at the wendigo, hunched over the fire. "What do I do?"

"That wendigo is in the way," Lily said. "What's it doing?"

"Waiting for the fire to go out so that it can get its heart back," said Gumi.

Miku's brow furrowed. Her heartbeat was fast; Luka could sense uneasiness, fear. Her hair was down, a teal strand escaped from behind her ear. Luka wanted it. "Okay..."

Gumi cursed. "I need someone to hold back Luka, and someone needs to distract the wendigo."

"I can distract it," said Lily.

"No," said Gumi. "You're sick. Slow. It'll break you in half."

"I can regenerate, it's fine," Lily said. "My father had been trying to kill me for years."

Gumi's grip loosened slightly in surprise, and Luka saw her chance. Without a word she ripped herself from Gumi's grasp and practically tackled Miku. The girl went down with a gasp, air rushing out of her body.

_Stop!_ a part of Luka shouted, and Luka hesitated, her rational mind returning to her for a moment. What was she doing? She was suddenly intensely aware of what she was about to do, and caught between instinct and thought, Luka swallowed and began to pull herself back if it wasn't for the fact that Gumi yanked her off of Miku before she had a chance to do anything.

"Luka, calm down," Gumi said.

"I...I'm sorry," Luka mumbled, her head dazed. Lily was helping Miku to her feet, Miku's eyes fixed on Luka's. A rush of shame filled Luka's soul. She tore her eyes away from Miku.

"No, you are not," said Gumi. "You need to _stay put._ Lily, go in and distract it. Miku..." Gumi hesitated. "Be careful. It can sense the silver in that dagger."

Miku nodded. "I'll be careful."

Lily coughed and wiped her nose before running in, Miku following after her. Lily grabbed the wendigo by its arm, pulling it backwards away from the fire. The wendigo, startled, swung around, one arm grabbing at Lily, giving Miku the opportunity to slip under and run over towards the fire. Lily staggered backwards, wincing as an antler opened a gash on her cheek. Miku didn't look back. She ran over to the fire where the heart was melting, dagger at the ready.

The monster, perhaps sensing this, immediately abandoned its pursuit of Lily. With a violent lurch it pulled itself out of Lily's grasp and lumbered over to Miku. Luka's eyes widened. No matter what Lily did, the wendigo had its priorities straight - it was making a beeline for Miku, ignoring Lily as though she was nothing more than an annoying gnat.

"Miku," Luka gasped, and she pulled herself out of Gumi's grasp. Gumi immediately grabbed her again.

"Don't," she said, voice warning.

"I'm not going to _bite_ her, that wendigo's going for her," Luka growled, and with that she violently pulled herself away from Gumi and ran over to the wendigo. Too close, it was too close - if it reached out an arm, a hand, it could easily grab Miku - Luka ran to the side and hurled herself at the wendigo. It staggered from the unexpected weight, a second - enough time for Miku to reach the fire and plunge the dagger into the wendigo's heart.

The wendigo stopped. Then, with a howl, it dissolved under Luka's feet, and Luka fell onto the floor with a thump that knocked the air out of her. Dazed, she stared up at the ceiling, soon replaced by Miku's face.

"Luka? Are you okay?" she asked.

"Miku!" Lily immediately ran over. "Don't go near her!"

Miku glanced up, hesitation evident in her face. "But..she looks fine now. Her eyes are normal."

Luka sat up. "You should still be careful. I'm...hungry."

Miku shook her head. "No. It's okay. You wouldn't hurt me." She smiled at Luka. That alone was enough to make guilt churn in Luka's heart, and she stared down at her hands. What had she been thinking? She was old enough to control herself, she wasn't some kind of bloodcrazed fledgling. From this distance, Miku was intoxicating, Luka feeling a constant pull towards her, but even under such stressful situations like the wendigo, Luka should still have been able to control herself...

"Amazing trust you have there," said Lily, "but safety is safety."

"Where did you get a silver dagger from, anyways?" Gumi asked. "Weird accessory for a high schooler to carry around."

"An Ishim gave it to me," said Lily, "after she helped me with...something."

Gumi raised an eyebrow and sighed, putting her hands on her hips and surveying the room. "Well, it's gone now. Good work, team. Now we just have to pay for all these repairs..."

Lily snorted. "You guys are rich enough anyways."

"Um..." said a voice from behind them, and everyone turned. There was Yukari, sleepily rubbing her eyes and peering inside the room. "Something happen?"

-o-o-o-

Lily escorted Miku and Yukari back to their rooms by Gumi's request. As for Luka, Gumi led her over to a non-wrecked room and tossed her a bloodpack. Luka held it in her hands, turning it over. Gumi had gotten the ice off of Luka's arm, although it felt sluggish and slow, as if the ice had made its way inside. Still, there was nothing Luka could do about that for now save trust her regenerative abilities to take care of that.

"Don't be picky," said Gumi, plopping herself down on the chair across from Luka. "It's not Miku's, but it'll do."

"Yeah, I know," Luka said. She popped off the cap and started drinking. The blood was thin and watery, but, as Gumi said, it would do. Most likely from a vamp freak or a blood whore. The hunger abated anyways, the veil of bloodlust dropping from her mind.

"So," said Gumi, "good job."

"Thanks," said Luka, and finished off the bloodpack. She exhaled and closed her eyes, leaning back against the chair, feeling the blood sluggishly make its way through her system. "Sorry about, um, losing control. And thanks for the blood."

"No problem, I'd say you earned it," Gumi grinned. "Fighting off a wendigo's enough to prove yourself. Now I just have to clear things with Sonika and you'll be fully in."

"Where is Sonika and everyone, by the way?"

Gumi shrugged. "Some territory dispute with a pack of werewolves that just moved in the city."

"Was that what the meeting yesterday was about too?"

"Yup," Gumi leaned forward. "I personally don't think it's too big of a deal, since usually packs just kind of back off. We could have let it slide for a bit, but a wendigo? Fighting off _one_ was bad enough, so think about what would happened if it spread. Well, whatever. Took care of both in one night."

Luka nodded. "Okay."

Gumi glanced down at her watch and with a sigh got up. "Alright, I'm going to head out. Sonika wanted me to be there at three in the morning."

"That's late...pretty close to morning, isn't it?"

Gumi laughed. "Shouldn't take too long. I'm just doing cleanup."

Cleanup? Luka decided not to press. "I see."

Gumi nodded. "Yup, it's a pain. And by the way," Gumi leaned forward, face by Luka's ear, voice a whisper, "you're not really a fledgling, are you?" Before Luka could answer, Gumi straightened up, smiling as though she hadn't said anything at all. "Well then, I'll see you later, Luka Megurine."

-o-o-o-

Miku sighed as she sat on the bed. Lily had told her to keep the silver dagger for now, and it laid on the bedside table. She rubbed her eyes - she was rather sleepy. When Luka had left her, Miku couldn't quite go to sleep; after all, knowing that one's friend was in imminent danger of being attacked by a wendigo ruined one's chances for rest, to say the least, and the faint crashing and shouting sounds that Miku heard didn't help either. When Lily burst in, panicked and blabbering, thrusting a silver dagger into Miku's hands, Miku was as unsurprised as she could be under the circumstances.

What surprised Miku was seeing Luka's eyes completely red, and when Luka tackled her, it immediately brought a flood of memories from when they first met, back when Miku was an ordinary high school student and when Luka was a mysterious vampire she barely knew. Except, the difference was that this time, Luka _stopped._

Although, Miku thought, it wasn't as though she knew Luka especially well nowadays, either. The vampire's hobbies, likes, dislikes, and dreams were still a mystery. Even after all this time, Miku didn't feel as though she knew Luka very well at all, despite being friends with her.

Except, were they even friends? Miku recalled the unpleasant drop in her gut when she first received Luka's text saying how she was just there at her school to check up on Yukari, a fact that wasn't helped by how familiar and friendly the two of them were with each other later on, a drop that transformed into a churning when Miku realized that in the time between Lily's problems and Yukari's, Luka had probably drank other people's blood...not that that should even _matter,_ Luka was a vampire and it was stupid to get preoccupied with what was very likely only a source of food for her, but the thought of Luka giving others the same feeling she gave Miku was...was...

Miku shook her head. Either way, she was pretty sure that normal friends didn't feel that way. Unless things were different for vampires, but somehow, Miku doubted that.

With a groan, she flopped herself down on Luka's bed. It was too late to think about all this. Dully, Miku wondered why she wasn't more preoccupied about the wendigo. Maybe she had been too desensitized to supernatural occurrences - they were certainly happening more and more often to her, and Yukari looked perfectly fine. The cut on Lily's cheek from the antlers was already healed as well, thanks to her regenerative abilities. Another case solved, though Miku doubted that was the end of everything.

There came a knocking on the door before it swung open and Luka stepped in, cautiously. She paused once she saw that Miku was awake. Her eyes were back to their original blue shade, the bloodlust lifted.

"Did you..." Miku began.

"Yes," Luka said. "Don't worry. I won't be attacking you like I did earlier. I'm...sorry."

"No, it's...it's fine," Miku said. "I said I trust you. You've saved my life before."

Luka said nothing for a while, standing by the doorway as if thinking. Then, she made her way over to the bed and sat down next to Miku. Miku tried to ignore how her heartbeat instantly accelerated.

When Luka began to speak, her words were slow, each considered and weighed before being spoken. "I did that, but back then, I couldn't control myself. I was so hungry. All I thought about was blood. It was just like the first time I met you."

"But you stopped," said Miku.

Luka's expression darkened. "Not the first time."

"But back then, you didn't know me-" Miku protested, but Luka cut her off with a wave of her arm.

"That doesn't matter," she said. "The point is, I still attacked you. You could've, _should've_ just reported me to the Seraphim."

Miku forced a laugh. "How could I? You looked so guilty! Anyways...it's fine now, isn't it? You've helped me, us, so much. We're..." Miku hesitated, searched her mind for the right word, but she couldn't think of any, other than the obvious and inadequate. "We're...friends."

Luka was studying her in the darkness, her blue eyes unreadable. "Right," she said, softly. "We're friends."

Perhaps due to how intently Luka was looking at her, Miku began to feel a little self-conscious, and her mind seized on the first topic that went through her head. "Y-yeah. So...so...we haven't really...hung out. Even though we said we would."

Luka blinked. "Hung out?"

"You don't remember?" Miku frowned. "You said you wanted to, you know, spend more time with me."

Luka's eyes widened. "Oh."

"Geez, you're _awful,"_ Miku mock-huffed, crossing her arms. "You _forgot?"_

"I'm sorry." Luka looked genuinely worried. "Where do you want to...hang out?" She said the words as though it belonged in a foreign language.

"You can't really go out in daytime, so it'll have to be something at night..." Miku thought. The obvious thing to do would be to watch a movie. That, or going to the arcade, or bowling, or ice skating, and really, there were a lot of things they could do. Just taking a walk around the city would be nice. "Can vampires eat? Or drink anything other than blood?"

Luka shook her head. "No, we can't digest it."

Miku frowned. "That sounds boring."

"Well, there are a lot of different humans out there, and each person's blood is unique, so it's different enough," said Luka.

Miku tried to imagine it. "Does that mean that you'll get tired of drinking the same person's blood over and over?"

"No!" Luka said, so suddenly Miku was taken by surprise and sat there, staring. Luka seemed to have realized something though, for just as quickly she began to speak again. "That is...I haven't really stuck to drinking only one human's blood, but..." Luka looked away from Miku, "I don't think that I would ever get tired of drinking..."

The atmosphere had changed again, an awkward cloud hanging between the two. Luka had trailed off, her face turned away from Miku, her pink hair hiding everything. Miku waited until the silence became unbearable. "Tired of drinking what?"

Another silence. "...your blood," Luka mumbled.

At that, Miku's eyes widened, blood rushing to her face. Dizzied, she stared at Luka. "What?"

Luka said nothing, though she turned to look at Miku. Miku tried not to fixate on her lips. She also tried to not focus on the fact that her neck had started to itch again. Then, Luka dropped her gaze. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"N-no," Miku stuttered, "it's...it's fine. It's okay."

"Really?"

Miku nodded. "Really. It's fine. I'm not, um," her face heated up, "freaked, or anything. It's okay."

"That's...good." Luka looked as though she didn't know what to think. "But earlier, you asked if I wasn't going to take your blood anymore. I thought that you didn't want me to."

Miku hesitated. Now they were getting into unfamiliar territory. She bit her lip and looked down. The room suddenly seemed unbearably hot. Miku wondered if the heater was turned up too high. "Um, n-no, I just asked because I, I just..."

"I just what?"

"I was curious, I mean," Miku was pretty sure that she could die of embarrassment right now and not be any worse for wear, "it's not like I mind. Well, n-no, I _do_ mind, but it's not, I'm not..."

Luka stared at Miku, one eyebrow raised in confusion. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

Why did this have to be so hard? Miku, face burning, shook her head. "N-nevermind."

"No, Miku," Luka put a hand over Miku's, her touch cool and electrifying; Miku gave a small start when she felt it. "Tell me. I need to know. I don't get what you mean."

Miku laughed nervously. "I don't know what I mean either. You're the vampire. Shouldn't you know?"

Luka frowned. "I'll just ask you a question, then." She drew her face closer to Miku's. Her next words were spoken in a low murmur, though despite her confident manner, her eyes were somewhat doubtful, uncertain, maybe even, Miku thought, a little frightened, though of what she didn't know. "If I was to take your blood right now, what would you do? Would you stop me?"

Luka's eyes were so deep, it felt as though Miku could drown in them. Miku's breaths were quick, her heart a fast staccato beat. She couldn't lie to her. She couldn't say anything but the absolute truth. "I wouldn't...but," Miku struggled to regain her mind, "didn't you just...feed?"

Luka smiled, her expression softening, most of the uncertainty leaving her face. "When you're a vampire, you're always hungry."

"Oh," Miku mumbled. "Okay." Her heart was thumping so loud she could hear it in her ears. A silence stretched on, long and unbearable. Then, Luka drew back, moving her hand away.

"It's been a long night," she said, her voice suddenly conversational. "You should get to sleep."

Miku blinked, taken off-guard by the sudden change in topic, by Luka's change in mood. "Huh?"

"After tomorrow, you get school off for the rest of the weekend, right?" Luka asked. "We can hang out when you're done."

"Oh, okay..." Miku nodded, before it fully hit her. "Wait, tomorrow? Th-that's so soon!"

Luka blinked. "Do you need to do anything special to prepare?"

"Yes! Well...no!" Miku didn't know whether to nod her head or shake it. Why would she need to do anything special to prepare? She was just hanging out with Luka, friends did that all the time. It wasn't as though they were going out on a date. Unless...Miku recalled the tension of a few scant minutes earlier. Unless they were more than friends. But did Luka see it that way? Miku hurriedly dismissed the possibility from her mind. There was no way. Luka said it herself, she was just always hungry. Besides, how could a vampire as powerful as Luka ever fall for an ordinary human? Right, it was impossible. Miku had merely read too many vampire romance novels. Stuff like this didn't happen in real life. Then again, wendigos possessing one's friends and one's friend turning out to be a dhampir didn't exactly happen normally either.

"Uh, so, which is it?" Luka looked confused.

"I mean," Miku couldn't quite bring herself to look at Luka in the eyes, "um, tomorrow is...fine."

"Alright then," said Luka, smiling. "We can hash out the details tomorrow. Anyways, you should get to sleep." Her smile grew into a grin. "You don't want to be tired for our date tomorrow."

"Alright," said Miku with a nod. "Night, Luka...wait," Miku's eyes shot wide open. "Did you say _date?"_

But Luka had already closed the door behind her. There was little else for Miku to do other than gape blankly at it before falling back on the bed. She didn't even know where to start thinking. Was she dreaming? She pinched herself. Nothing happened.

Great, Miku thought. Now it'd be even _harder_ for her to get to sleep.

* * *

**I'll be honest, originally, I was going to split this chapter up into two. And then I thought, why make you guys wait? XD So here's a nice, long chapter. The longest yet, actually! Now some other news. School is starting for me, so I'll be busier. Updates will probably come slower than they did before, which is why I tried to get this one out quicker. Nonetheless, I'll try not to keep you guys waiting for too long! :D **


	10. Part 3

When school ended, Miku wasn't sure what to do. If it had been any other day, it would have been normal. She would have gone back home after spending some time with her friends. Once there, she would work on homework before eating dinner with her family, and after that, if she didn't get to finish everything, she would work on the rest of her homework. Otherwise, she would relax and watch TV shows, or something like that. The point was, any other day would be totally mundane, business as usual, move along, nothing to see here.

Of course, today was abnormal. Granted, Miku was more used to abnormality these days considering all the supernatural phenomena she was surrounded by, but still. There was one difference that set this day apart from all the rest.

Namely, she had a date with Luka today, and Miku was at a complete loss as to what to do. The vampire seemed so experienced that Miku was certain that anything she did next to Luka would look dumb. The mere fact that Luka actually _asked her out_ was one that was hard for Miku to grasp, and during school she paid absolutely no attention to anything, her mind intent on the more pressing problem of dissecting everything that happened the other night. Did she misunderstand Luka's intentions? But that can't be, because Luka had made things abundantly clear. The words were blunt and impossible to misinterpret - _you don't want to be tired for our date tomorrow._

"Are you okay, Miku?" Yukari asked, bringing Miku out of her reverie. Miku stared at her. Surprisingly, considering all that happened yesterday, Yukari looked rather well-rested. While still tired, she was nowhere near as pale and weak as she had been the days before.

Miku grinned, unconvincingly. "Yeah, I...I'm fine! What is it?"

Lily gave her a dour look. "It's lunch. You've been zoned out the whole day. Did you even pay attention during class?"

"Um..."

"Our midterm got pushed up a week!" Rin cried, brandishing her chopsticks like a sword. "It's next week now! That's horrible. That's too horrible!" Rin slammed her chopsticks into her rice with so much force she almost broke the plastic container that held it. "It's cruel and unusual!"

"The teacher announced that?" Miku said.

"He wasn't technically supposed to, since not everything has been finalized yet," said Len, "but chances are that we have to start studying early."

Miku blinked. At any other time, a push up in midterm scheduling would be a cause for alarm. At the moment, it made only the tiniest blip in Miku's mind. "Oh."

"Oh?" Rin's eyes grew wide. "Just 'oh'? Is that all you have to say? What's _up_ with you today?"

Yukari and Lily exchanged glances, and Yukari leaned towards Miku. "Are you sick?"

"No, I'm fine," said Miku. "It's just, um...I'm just kind of tired," she laughed, hoping that Yukari and Lily would understand. "I didn't get much sleep last night."

Far from looking understanding, Yukari's eyes widened and at once she stood up from her desk, with such speed Miku flinched. "Miku! Did you..." Yukari stopped herself and glanced around. Rin, Len, and Miku were all looking at her with baffled expressions, and Yukari blushed a little, seeming to realize something, for she just as quickly sat back down. "Do you want to go to the bathroom with me?"

"Uh...sure," said Miku, and at once Yukari leapt back up to her feet and practically dragged Miku outside. The hallway was relatively secluded, and Yukari stopped outside the door.

"Did something happen between you and Luka last night?" were the first words out of the girl's mouth.

Miku felt heat rush to her cheeks. "Wha-no! Nothing happened!"

"Oh," Yukari said doubtfully. "Really?"

"Yes! All that happened was that we fought off the wendigo."

"Oh...but Lily doesn't look tired, and she did the same thing," said Yukari. "Plus, she was sick last night."

Miku saw in this a chance to change the subject. "The sickness went away with the wendigo?"

Yukari nodded. "I think so. When we were walking to school this morning, Lily said she felt a lot better once she woke up. Anyways, if nothing happened between you and Luka, then...is there anything wrong? You've been really out of it today. Are you okay?"

Yukari's simple, straightforward worry made Miku wince. She couldn't keep this from her. "Yeah. I'm fine. Okay," Miku sighed. "I wanted to keep this a secret, but, uh, Luka and I have a..." she hesitated, "date...today."

"Wow," Yukari's eyes widened. "When? After school? What'll you two be doing?"

"I'm not sure," Miku began, but Yukari looked as though she had just realized something else, for she looked rather excited.

"Oh! This is your first date, right?"

Miku glanced around the hallway. "Not so loud."

Yukari continued, oblivious, seeming to work herself up more and more the more she spoke. "This is great! Miku, I'm so proud of you! Your first date is with a vampire! It's just like my supernatural romance novels!"

"I don't know if I want my life to be like your supernatural romance novels..." Miku mumbled. "A-anyways, I don't know what to do. Luka's...well, Luka's just so good at everything. I'll probably just look stupid the whole night."

"That's not true," said Yukari. "It sounds like you two have known each other for a while, so she must have asked you out for a reason! Besides, by now I'm sure she would've seen you being stupid already, so you don't need to worry about it."

Miku winced. "Well, still-"

"Just be relaxed and everything will be okay," Yukari said. "As long as you don't push a block of silver in her face, you'll be fine."

"I'll be fine..." Miku mumbled.

"Yup! Now let's eat lunch!"

-o-o-o-

"As expected," Sonika said with a sigh, "the werewolves weren't happy to leave."

Gumi shrugged, her attention intent on some rhythm action game. "By the time I got there, they were already gone. What's the problem? If they sniff around again, we can just chase them out. We have the law on our side."

"True," said Sonika, flipping through the legal documents in her hand. "They're unregistered werewolves. Probably came about illegally." Sonika snorted and tossed the papers onto the table. "They can get fake IDs all they want, but the Seraphim are more advanced now. Can't hide your identity for long in this century."

The words stuck in Luka's mind. She was living on borrowed time in her identity as a mere fledgling, but as long as she was careful, there shouldn't be any problems with the government...of course, she also couldn't keep hiding forever. Gumi's words last night had shaken her into recognizing the reality of her situation. Something had to give. Her time as only 'Luka Megurine' was running out.

Gumi shrugged, again. "Humans are savvier, that's all. We still have advantages."

"I guess," Sonika muttered.

Gumi put down her controller and turned to face Sonika. "Come on, why _else_ would I spend so much time with the Seraphim? As long as we have a good relationship with them, they won't go after us. House Karnstein has a _great _reputation with the government, thanks to me."

"Not great enough," Sonika said. "The government in Crypton? Sure. What about the rest of the world?"

Gumi laughed. "That's for the _other_ branches of Karnsteins to deal with. Not our problem. Thanks to our efforts, Crypton is probably the most vampire-friendly city out there." She got up from her seat to change game disks. "You're way too worked up about a group of unregistered werewolves. I can tell a few of my Seraphim friends to hunt them down if it bugs you that much. It's not a big deal."

"Let's not go that far," said Sonika. "I don't want us to get an even worse reputation than we already have with the general population."

Gumi sighed dramatically. "Fine, fine, as you wish. Hey, Luka, you're pretty quiet today. What do you think?"

Luka looked up at the ceiling. House Karnstein's reputation with the Crypton government was fine, sure. However, on the whole, the house wasn't very trusted due to the fact that its members were often seen as duplicitous and misleading, a reputation that mostly came about due to their bloodline powers in Inveiglement. There was also the fact that in matters of business and territory, they were ruthless. "If it's just a pack of unregistered werewolves, we don't need to worry too much," Luka replied. "But it depends. We aren't very popular with other supernaturals, right?"

Gumi scoffed. "Well, sure. But who cares when all the other supernaturals are practically run out of the city? I haven't seen demons like succubi and dream-eaters around in decades. Pretty sure the government - and us - eradicated those in Crypton."

"You never know," said Luka. "It's hard to get rid of something completely. Anyways," she got up from her chair. "I have to go now."

Gumi frowned. "It's like, six. What do you have to do so early?"

"I have a date," said Luka, and with that, she left, leaving Gumi and Sonika staring after her.

After some time, Sonika shook her head and heaved a sigh. "Fledglings. There are bigger issues right now than a _date."_

Gumi glanced at the door. "Maybe this is for the better. Now that she's gone, I have to tell you something."

Sonika looked up. "What is it?"

"I don't think," said Gumi, "that Luka is who she says she is."

-o-o-o-

"Sorry I'm late!" cried Miku as she ran towards Luka.

Luka smiled. "It's fine. I just got here myself."

Miku nodded and looked around. The square that Luka had asked to meet her in was rather crowded, with people chatting, walking dogs, hanging around, and generally enjoying their Friday night. A few of them cast curious glances at Luka, not that Miku could blame them. It was unusual to see vampires about so early, since the sun, though setting, was still technically up. "Um. So. What do you want to do? Where do you want to go?"

Luka looked vaguely amused. "I'm fine with anything. Did you already eat?"

"Yeah. I ate back home. I, um, well, I know that you can't really eat, so I didn't want you to just...sit there and wait for me to finish eating..." Miku trailed off.

Luka laughed. "Thanks for being so considerate. Do you want to walk around then?"

"Just walk around?" said Miku, surprised. "Sure, but are you...fine with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"It's just walking around..."

"Unless we'll be walking around in complete silence, it'll be fine," Luka grinned. She looked so carefree that Miku started to feel foolish for even being so worried in the first place. Was she the only one of the two who felt so nervous? "If we see something interesting, then we can do that."

"That makes sense..." Miku said as she tried to calm her rapid heartbeat. Then, the thought occurred to her that Luka might, shit, be able to _hear_ how fast Miku's heartbeat was. This did absolutely nothing for Miku's state of mind and thus Miku willed her heart to stop jumping around like a frightened rabbit and _be cool_ but Miku's heartbeat was having absolutely none of that. If anything, it sped up even more.

"So," said Luka with a smile, "let's go."

-o-o-o-

Due to it being a Friday night, the city streets were lively and crowded. Luka and Miku made their way past brightly-lit store facades and past groups of happily chattering people. That would all be well and good, if it wasn't for the fact that Miku and Luka were currently walking in silence.

Miku scrounged in her mind for things to say, things to _do,_ but she couldn't think of anything at all. All she had were half-formed thoughts that evaporated once she got a hold of them. Strange - it was their first time actually hanging out, and though they could always find things to say when, well, together on some weird supernatural event, now, Miku couldn't think of anything at all. Luka's day-to-day (or rather, night-to-night) life was a mystery.

"Um," Miku ventured, and Luka glanced down at her. "What do you like to do in your, um, spare time?"

Luka leaned her head back and thought. "Mostly...I attend house meetings, watch movies, and read books. Gumi used to make me go to the club all the time, back when I was _really_ new, but it's been a while, not counting the time we went to get info about the genie. So yeah, mostly I just spend time relaxing."

"Uh...really? That sounds pretty..." _boring,_ "...quiet."

Luka smiled. "There's something to be said for quietness. I think it's highly underrated. I've had enough excitement to last me a while. Right now, all I want is to just sit and have time to myself."

Miku looked at her askance. "Really? But you just became a vampire, right?"

At that, a strange look passed over Luka's face, half guilty and half something else, before she replaced it with a bland grin. "A lot of things can happen in a short time. You should know that. Anyways," Luka continued, "my life before I became a vampire was pretty hectic too."

"Really?" Miku blinked and tried to imagine what Luka would have been like as a human. "What was it like?"

"Huh?"

"You know," said Miku, "what was your life like before you became a vampire? Do you still keep in contact with your family?"

There was a long pause. Luka looked at shop windows, though her eyes seemed to see past them to some hazy, unfocused, long-ago past. "No," she said at last. "I don't talk with my family anymore. When I became a vampire, they cut off all ties with me, so." Luka shrugged. "I don't even know where my family members are these days. That's alright, though. I was never very close with them, even when I was human."

"Oh..." Miku winced. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay," Luka interrupted. "It was a while ago, so I don't really feel anything about that anymore. I don't even remember my parents' faces."

Miku's eyebrows furrowed a little. Luka had said that she was only a three year old vampire a while ago. If she had been a vampire for only three years, how could she have completely forgotten her parents' faces? Though at the same time, she did say that she had never been close with her family. Besides, her parents might have died when she was young, or something like that. Miku decided to let it go.

Apparently Luka decided the same thing, for she changed the subject. "Anyways, that's all in the past. Do you want to watch a movie?"

"Huh?" Miku jolted back into the present and looked at where they were standing - namely, in front of a movie theater. "Oh...sure. What's good now?" She looked at the currently-airing shows and her eyes widened as it focused on one in particular. "Ah, the movie of _Dusk_ is out!"

_"Dusk?"_ Luka said, flatly. "Do you really want to watch that?"

Miku grinned at her. "What, you don't like it?"

Luka sighed. "Honestly, I have no idea how it got that big. It's just another vampire romance novel."

"You don't get it, Luka," said Miku. "It's not 'just' another vampire romance novel. That's it. It's decided. We have to see it."

"Wha-really?"

"Yes! Of course!"

-o-o-o-

The theater was surprisingly full, and as Luka plopped herself down on her seat, she thought back on that unexpected conversation about her past. Miku bringing it up had shot a load of anxiety back into Luka's system, and nervously she went over each and every word she said. Did she give something away? She didn't think so, but...what if she did? Then what? Either way though...was it really right to keep her past from Miku? The two of them were on a _date_ right now. This wasn't even bringing into account what Luka felt for Miku. If she really loved her, then how could she possibly keep Miku in the dark? She had to tell her the truth sometime, but...no. Luka pushed the thought out of her head. Not now. It was too soon. Never mind the gnawing thought that stayed in her head - _when will it be time then, if even now is 'too soon'? - _their first date was definitely not the time to unload all that baggage onto Miku.

Luka glanced at Miku out of the corner of her eyes. From this distance, she could hear Miku's heartbeat, fast and jittery, betraying the girl's feelings even though the girl's expression was calm. Luka focused on it, trying to wipe the doubts from her heart.

"Um, so," Miku said, talking fast, a guilty expression on her face, "I hope you're okay with seeing this movie."

"Oh, so _now_ you feel bad," Luka said, grinning to take off the sting, relaxing into the conversation so as to take her mind off her conscience.

Miku laughed. "It's actually a good story though! It's realistic and everything. It just has really bad cover art and a bad marketing campaign."

"Alright," said Luka, leaning back in her seat. She could think of better things to watch than yet another vampire romance movie, but if Miku was this enthusiastic about it, there had to be something more, right? Then again...Luka hoped Miku and Yukari didn't have the same taste in books. Judging from what little Luka's read from Yukari's collection, the girl's tastes seemed to run mostly towards somewhat thinner works, to put it lightly. "So...what's the story about?"

Miku frowned. "I can't tell you. It'll be a huge spoiler."

"What? Even the basic premise?"

"Well..." Miku looked reluctant. "On the surface, it's about vampires, but later on things get really crazy. Just goes to show," Miku heaved a sigh, "if you get involved with vampires, your world just gets messed up."

"Um..." Luka wasn't entirely sure how to react to that. "Does that mean you regret-"

"What? No!" Miku jolted up and shook her head frantically. "That's not what I meant! I would never regret-"

"Excuse me," said the girl sitting behind them, "could you two be quiet? The movie is starting."

Sure enough, the lights were beginning to dim. Miku grinned sheepishly at the girl before sinking down into her seat. Luka, on the other hand, only furrowed her eyebrows in brief consternation. The girl smelled like werewolf. Still, it wasn't as though werewolves weren't allowed in movie theaters or anything, so she pushed it aside and focused on the movie.

It started out conventionally enough. A girl named Isabel Eider moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere and met a dashing vampire boy named Eduardo Runciter. On the fifth of April, however, the plot began to get strange. Things began to transform, with Eduardo's home transforming from a lavish mansion to a rundown shack, Isabel's car turning into a horse-drawn carriage, and so on.

Luka was beginning to get into it when, partway through the movie, the footage jittered and came to a stop, the movie screen flickering into blankness. There was a baffled silence in the theater for a few moments before it erupted into a cacophony of confusion and complaints.

"What?" Miku cried, leaning forward. "How could that happen?"

Luka frowned. "Yeah, that's really weird." _And suspicious._

In the front, a sharply dressed man ran from one of the adjourning doors so that he was standing in front of the screen and shouted something about technical issues, apologizing for the inconvenience and offering a free movie ticket, which could be claimed at any time today for any of their movies.

Miku sighed as she got up from her seat. "That's...that's awful. You can't just end the movie _there."_

"Do you want to get a free movie ticket?" Luka asked as she stood, taking a deep breath of theater air. Nothing smelled unusual.

Miku chewed her lip. "Sure. Did you like the movie though? Well...what little you've seen of it."

It wasn't the best movie she ever saw - the shift in plot partway through was jarring compared to the earlier scenes of awkward teenage romance - but it had a good idea, Luka had to admit, and a compelling enough mystery. "Yeah, it was pretty good." She glanced back at the seats behind them. The werewolf was gone.

-o-o-o-

The moon was up when the two of them emerged from the theater, Miku in a brighter mood after playing some games in the arcade and claiming her free pass for a movie.

"I gotta admit," said Miku with a laugh, "tonight, I was almost expecting something supernatural to happen."

"Really? Why?"

Miku shrugged. "That always seems to happen when I'm hanging out with you."

Luka winced. She couldn't deny Miku's words. Briefly, she wondered what would have happened if she had never met Miku that night, and of course, thoughts of that night always led to what she had did in her hunger, and Luka's gut churned. The tension from last night circulated in her body. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay," Miku waved a hand. "I mean, you saved my life, more than once, and you helped out Lily and Yukari too. Without you, well...we'd probably be dead."

The past weighed heavy on her mind. "But all those things only happened when I came in the picture. Maybe it's something to do with me."

"You?" Miku said. "Why? How? Lily had always been a dhampir. It's not like Lily randomly became a dhampir after I met you. And the wendigo thing...Lily said that they could move anywhere, so it was something that happened. Something that would happen even if I didn't know you. So, I'm...I really don't think it has anything to do with you. All you did was help us. Besides," Miku looked at Luka, a faint blush on her cheeks, though her eyes were direct. "I trust you."

Miku's words, simple and heartfelt, made their way through Luka's heart. Luka stared at her. They had certainly come a long way from that night when Miku pushed her away and shouted that she couldn't trust her. The thought of how much their relationship progressed would have made Luka feel happy, but instead, she felt a sting of guilt. Miku's trust was misplaced. Luka was, after all, lying to her about her actual identity. Sure, it was a lie made out of necessity, a lie to save herself from being caught by the Seraphim for being a vampire that was a liability, but that didn't excuse it now.

"Luka?" Miku asked, snapping Luka out of her daze. "What's wrong?"

The guilt was crawling up her throat. "Um..."

"I told you," said Miku, worried, "don't blame yourself."

Luka could hear Miku's heartbeat, quick and fast. "Y-yeah," said Luka with a forced laugh, burying away her guilt. This was a _date,_ and not the time or place for...for what? Telling Miku the truth? Luka shook her head quickly, as if doing so would shake the thoughts out of her head, and she looked up at the sky. "Thank you, Miku. Sorry about all that."

"It's okay. Anytime. Um, do you want to get some ice cream or..." Miku trailed off. "O-oh. Sorry! I forgot that you can't really eat."

Luka grinned. "That's alright. It's the thought that counts. I'll buy you some if you want."

"Ah," Miku perked up, "that sounds great!"

Luka laughed. "Aren't you supposed to say something like 'oh no, you don't have to' before accepting?"

"Oh no, you don't have to," said Miku, her voice completely toneless and flat.

"You can't accept and say that _after._ Besides, you don't sound like you mean it at all."

"It doesn't matter, right?" Miku grinned. "Either way, I'll end up saying both! Besides," a faint blush colored Miku's cheeks, but she kept talking, "you said this was a date. What kind of person asks someone out on a date and then refuses to buy them ice cream _after _offering to?"

Miku had a point. "Alright," said Luka with a grin, "you got me. Let's get some ice cream."

-o-o-o-

"Thanks for today," said Miku as she walked home with Luka. "I had fun-" she stopped once she saw two figures standing outside her house. A chill ran down her spine. She knew exactly who those people were, and as discreetly as possible Miku turned around to begin walking in the other direction. "Hey, I think I have the wrong house, want to walk around a bit more?"

"Um," said Luka, "but this is your house. Why are Lily and Yukari standing around outside?"

"I don't know, they're weird. Let's uh, get going-" Miku stopped once she realized that the silhouettes of Lily and Yukari were getting closer. And closer. Without another word, Miku grabbed a baffled Luka's hand and started to run, but it was too late.

"How was your date, Miku?" overlapped perfectly with "You were on a _date, _Miku?" and it was game over. Miku stopped running. Luka looked at Miku, and then she looked at Yukari and Lily.

"Did you tell them?" she said.

Miku sighed. "I didn't tell _Lily..."_

"Oi...don't say my name like it's some kind of disease..."

"Lily was worried about you today too," Yukari explained, "and you never told me _not _to tell anyone. Don't worry. She was the only one I told."

"When did this happen?" Lily cut in. "Besides, what's with this timing? The night after we fight off some big supernatural monster, you decide to go on a date? Isn't it normal to, I dunno, take a night to recover first?"

"You don't know Miku, Lily," Yukari shook her head and put her hands to her side. "She goes hard."

Luka let out a barely audible sigh and turned towards Miku. "Well, I had a good time tonight."

"Wait," said Miku, "you're leaving now?" This was not the way a date was supposed to end. Shouldn't there be some kind of romantic event? Like...like kissing her goodbye? At least, a hug? "But...but..."

Luka laughed and looked over at Lily and Yukari. "Well, I don't see what more I can do with your friends here."

"But a date isn't supposed to end like...like _this_," Miku gesticulated wildly at Lily and Yukari. "Isn't there supposed to be something more...more...romantic?"

"I _told_ you we should've come later," Yukari said to Lily, puffing her cheeks out. "Now we ruined their date!"

"Excuse me for not knowing that their date would go on for more than three hours..."

"You could've just _texted_ me," Miku interrupted, before she heaved a sigh and turned back towards Luka. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," said Luka with a smile. "We can go out again. Hopefully the movie won't break next time."

"Yeah," Miku mumbled. "I'm sorry. I'll, um, text you."

"Sure," Luka said. She leaned down and, to Miku's surprise, kissed her on the cheek before withdrawing. "I'll see you later, then."

Miku could barely choke out a 'later' over her suddenly pounding heartbeat and the rush of blood to her face.

"A kiss on the cheek?" Lily said once Luka left. "That's so old fashioned."

"Luka's chivalrous!" said Yukari. "She saved me from the wendigo, remember?"

"Well, yeah, I guess, but..."

"Besides," Yukari continued, "it's not like anything's going to happen with two other people standing right there. It'd be awkward."

"Exactly," said Miku, glaring at Yukari and Lily. "So why are you two here in the first place?"

"Why else?" Lily looked surprised by the very question. "To hear about how all...how all _this_ happened!" She waved her arm at the empty space where Luka once stood.

Miku groaned. "You could've just texted me!"

"I have a limited text plan."

"Yukari doesn't..."

Yukari grinned sheepishly and raised her phone, screen blank. "My phone ran out of battery...um, sorry, Miku. I'll buy you ice cream?"

"Luka just bought me ice cream."

Yukari looked crestfallen. "Oh. Um. I'll get you a whole bunch of spring onions? I know! I'll make you spring onion ice cream."

Miku sighed. It was going to be a long night.

-o-o-o-

The girl leaned her head back as she took a final sip of the ethereal, wispy dream, its essence vanishing from the slim vial that housed it.

"What does it taste like?" asked Yuuma.

The girl examined the vial, dangling it between two pale fingers. "Quiet. Creamy." Her eyes closed and she took in a few breaths of air. "Very simple...the memories are faint. It's a dream of someone who has been in a coma for the past twenty five years."

Yuuma nodded, as if confirming something. "So you are a dream-eater."

"Half of one," the girl corrected. She placed the vial onto the table and turned to face Yuuma and the others fully. They were a ragged, hungry-looking group, frail and frightened, hair shaggy, eyes tired. "So what did you call me for?"

Yuuma glanced at his ragtag group of werewolves before turning to face the girl. "I want you to help us. I know we don't have much to offer you, but you know as well as we that the vampires have a stranglehold on this city." He spread his arms. "You can tell that we're a small pack. We wouldn't get in their way much. First few days we spent in this city went fine, but apparently we were living on Karnstein territory."

The girl's lips quirked. "You won't be able to get away with living on Karnstein territory for long. Too big a group. But you should've been able to negotiate something with them, right?"

Yuuma said nothing, directing his gaze towards the ground. It was another werewolf who picked up the thread, a girl with long, curled blonde hair that fell to her knees. She looked tired, dark circles under her eyes, but the way she stood indicated defiance. She was angry, that much was certain. "We negotiated something with them, alright. The bloodsuckers wanted us as their own personal blood bank."

The girl's eyes widened. "You mean-"

"What SeeU meant," said Yuuma, slowly, "was that, in return for us staying in the city, they wanted our blood. Not just a little of it though - they wanted a lot. And you know that werewolves require more blood than other supernaturals, right?"

"Without our blood, we're about as powerful as a group of puppies," SeeU said. "And of course, since the most _honorable_ House Karnstein has a ready access to blood whenever they want, it wasn't really like they needed ours. Once enough of our blood had been taken, they walked in, waved some bullshit document in front of our faces, informed us we had to leave, and when we wouldn't, they kicked us out. Since we were all so weak, we couldn't fight back."

The girl frowned. "That's awful, but what can I do about it?"

"I know that things haven't been going well for your kind in the city either, right?" Yuuma said. "You're the last dream-eater in Crypton."

"Half dream-eater," the girl corrected, again.

"Whatever!" SeeU leaned forward. "Aren't you _tired_ of skulking around in shadows all the time? Aren't you sick of how unfair the system is? The vampires have their hands in Seraphim pockets. They always look the other way for them, so vampires can do whatever they want."

The girl shrugged. "It's not like we can do anything about it."

SeeU glanced over at Yuuma, who, for the first time, smiled. "Actually," he said, "we have a plan. And we need the only dream-eater in Crypton to help us."

* * *

**Sorry about the long wait, everyone! This begins Part 3.**


	11. Chapter 11

It was dark when Luka got back to the blood coven, but that was only to be expected. What she didn't expect, however, was Sonika leaning against the wall and glaring at her.

"Um," said Luka. "Hi."

"Um, hi, yourself," said Sonika. "We need to talk."

Those words never failed to send a jolt of dread down anyone's spine. "Why? What is it?"

"I've been informed by Gumi about certain _issues_ with your identity," said Sonika, pushing herself off the wall. "You are not a fledgling."

Shit. Luka wasn't prepared to have this talk now, but at the same time, after that eternity of lying during the date, a part of her was just too tired to put up any more fight. So what if they found out she was Elluka? It wasn't as though the Karnsteins would give up such a powerful playing piece. That would be counterproductive, unless they were too afraid of this and wanted to kill her.

"What makes you think that?" said Luka.

"Gumi told me some things, and also, you're too good to be a fledgling."

Luka forced a grin. "Wow, thanks for the compliment. Maybe I'm just naturally talented."

Sonika snorted. "Bullshit. There's 'naturally talented' and there's 'too good', and you're in the latter. Don't be a smartass about this. Why are you pretending to be a fledgling?"

Luka's shoulders sagged. Whatever, she thought. They would have gotten her sooner or later. The whole truth, however, might be too unbelievable, so Luka spoke carefully. "I got in trouble with some of the Seraphim. Back when the blood supplier program came out."

Sonika's eyebrows furrowed as she did the mental calculations. "That would've been around thirty years ago, right?"

"Yeah," Luka sighed. "I got away - well, it was easy for me to get away at that point, I drank a lot - and then I laid low for a while. I decided to join a house because I thought it would give me protection. You know, a new identity."

Sonika frowned. "That doesn't explain how you got our bloodline powers. And the person who bit you said they did it themselves. They swore you were human before, actually."

"Please," said Luka, wearily, "if I can't inveigle vampires, how would I have lived this long? It was just a parlor trick. People's perceptions can be so easily changed. And you pick up things after living for so long."

Sonika's eyes narrowed. "You can't inveigle members of our family. It's one of our codes."

"Well, I did that _before_ I joined, and I promise you that since then I haven't done anything of the sort," said Luka, spreading her arms.

"Not even to that human girl you had your date with?"

"What?" Luka stared. "Of course not! That wouldn't be-"

"Doesn't matter what it wouldn't be," Sonika interrupted, "you're exhibiting all the stalkerish traits of a vampire in love. We're pretty morally loose, and I assume you've been lying to her about your identity like you lied to all of us. If you're okay with lying about something like that, how would we know you aren't using your powers to inveigle her?"

Luka looked down. It was true - she was lying about her identity to Miku. Her gut churned. How could the two of them even _have_ something if one of the essential foundations of having a relationship was illusory? Miku liked a Luka that simply didn't exist. "I promise I'm not using her powers on her. But it doesn't matter if I am or not, anyways. Miku isn't the topic of the conversation."

"I guess," said Sonika. "Listen - we'll keep you here. But you'll have to behave. If not, well," Sonika shrugged, "no matter how old and powerful you are, I doubt you can survive the wrath of an entire House, combined with the Seraphim you're hiding from."

"I've been nothing but helpful," Luka snapped. "I defeated Leon Magnus, I defeated the wendigo-"

"We weren't even having a _dispute_ with Leon, you just went and killed him because he kidnapped your pet human. As for the wendigo, you probably wouldn't have fought nearly as hard if it wasn't for the fact that it was possessing a human friend of your's."

Sonika was right, hard as it was to admit, but Luka wasn't about to give her the satisfaction. "Whatever the next assignment is," said Luka, "I promise I'll help."

"Thanks," said Sonika, and she put a hand on Luka's shoulder. "But we'll be watching you."

-o-o-o-

Humans cannot eat dreams. This was a normal, natural fact of life. Humans create dreams, to be sure - they can live dreams, be inside a dream, but the one thing they cannot do is actually eat the entirety of a dream, swallow up that pure essence of experience.

Dream-eaters, on the other hand, that's where they get their name. Dreams were, quite literally, their bread and butter. They eat and eat away at a person's dreams, experiencing only secondhand what power a dream might hold, catching only faint glimpses and taste notes of what the experience of a dream could have been. They could bring some of their stored dreams into reality, if undigested, and many of them do take advantage of the many, many, many dreams people have about flying to fly around themselves. Dream-eaters ruin a person's soul if they target the same person one time too many, which is why most of them hop and jump from person to person, never staying too long, never immersing their soul deep into another's.

Now, Ia, being half of both, was firmly stuck in a paradoxical existence. She ate dreams - being a daughter of a dream-eater, there was no way of that not happening - but at the same time, she could experience them. Every time she ate a dream, she had to struggle to not get pulled in to it. A whole lot of unpleasant things could happen when she shared dreams with someone else, the least of which was getting discovered snoozing away by a stranger in a stranger's bed in the morning.

It was awful, especially when one took in the fact that Ia could only subsist on dreams. Normal foods, that stuff of everyday life like burgers, bento boxes, takeout, and so on, Ia could only experience in dreams. So there was always that, of course, that pull of immersing herself in someone else's dream just for the experience of doing something else.

But right now, Ia couldn't afford to let herself get pulled into a dream. Right now, Ia was on the job. The first job she's ever been on, really - supernatural presence other than vampires had lessened significantly ever since House Karnstein moved in, and, well, the vampires had done their best to systematically eradicate every other supernatural in the city. Now there was nothing left but half-bloods and weaklings clinging onto life...and the new werewolves, Ia supposed, but they were illegal ones. Still, they had a plan, and Ia was tired of skulking around and hiding.

She scrutinized the piece of paper SeeU had given her and looked at the house before her. The house was dark. The werewolves had done their research on the Karnsteins and decided that the best way to go about their campaign was to strike at vulnerabilities - namely, fledglings and humans strongly associated with the blood coven.

"Back when they kicked us out, one of the bloodsuckers mentioned something about dealing with a wendigo problem," SeeU had said when she passed the paper to Ia. "All the other vampires are too old, too experienced...they'd know when a dream-eater is targeting them. We'll start small. Karnsteins have friends. We'll get in the heads of those first."

Ia looked back down at the list and frowned at the werewolves' list of hypothetical fledglings and humans. It looked like they just snagged a random grab-bag of names of whoever happened to stay behind in the Karnstein blood coven that night. Lily Matsuda. Yukari Yuzuki. Miku Hatsune. Luka Megurine. There was a Gumi Nakajima, but that name was hurriedly scratched out.

A human would be the easiest one to start out with. Ia did a requisite search of addresses. Luka Megurine was definitely a vampire, considering how her name was in the vampire database and she lived in the Karnstein blood coven. There was no way Ia was going to try to invade _that_ on her first night. That building was ridiculously tall and Luka's room was similarly ridiculously high up. Yukari, Lily, and Miku were completely clean - probably friends of the Karnsteins. Why humans would want to be friends with vampires was beyond Ia. Vampires preyed on humans. It was like a lamb cuddling up to a wolf. Stupid.

But anyways. That left Yukari, Lily, and Miku as potential targets. It was best to target a human that was closest to a vampire - that way Ia could glean the most information about the Karnsteins. Yukari had apparently gotten her own room during her stay - possibly a sign of importance - but Miku had slept in the room of a vampire, so maybe Miku was the one who had a particularly close tie. Lily, on the other hand, didn't sleep at all.

But Ia had time. If she got it wrong the first night, well, whatever she gleaned from the dream should lead her to the right person. Ia put the paper back in her pocket and took stock of the building once more. It was an absolutely normal two-story house other than the fact that one of the windows was boarded up. Strange. Ia placed an experimental foot on the house's wall and concentrated, drawing out a little of a dream she had a few days ago, one from a little boy who dreamt of climbing walls and swinging from buildings, applying the lightest dusting of it to herself. Sure enough, her foot stuck and Ia climbed up the wall, keeping herself in shadow so that people walking around at two in the morning wouldn't look up and see a girl climbing up someone's house.

Eventually, Ia reached a window and tested it. It was unlocked. She slid it up and tumbled into the house. She left the window open and stayed there, still. It was completely silent. Slowly, Ia got up and looked around. She was in someone's bedroom, decorated in purple and rabbits. Stacks of newspaper on the desk. Cans of extra-strength caffeinated drinks. Supernatural romance novels scattered on the floor.

Ia wrinkled her nose in distaste at the messiness and walked over to the bed. There was a soundly sleeping girl. She looked completely exhausted. Ia waited. The girl did not wake. She bent over and pressed her lips against the girl's, stealing her breath, stealing her dream. The girl was cold, and her dream-

Shit. Ia hurriedly pulled back, but by then it was too late and the landscape was morphing before her eyes. She stumbled backwards, pinched herself, but it was too late. Somehow, Ia didn't quite count on the dream being this strong, but she should have expected it. The deeper in sleep one was, the more exhausted one was, the easier it was for Ia to get sucked into the dream too. It was the simple nature of things. Deep in sleep was when someone was deep in a dream. And this girl - Yukari, Ia knew her name now - was very, very deep in sleep.

-o-o-o-

"We must stop her!" the man shouted, placing a hand on Ia's back. Ia, dazed, looked up. She was on top of a train with a cohort of men, all dressed in military green. She looked down at her hands. She was holding a pistol.

"What?" said Ia. She stood up and pinched herself, desultory. It was a no go. She wasn't about to wake up.

Once in a dream, there were a few ways of escape. One was to exploit the rips of logic in dreams, make them so big that the dreamer couldn't help but to wake up under the jolt of realization that they were dreaming. Another was to find the dreamer and kill them.

Ia had a gun, so the easiest thing to do was to kill the dreamer, wherever she was. Since people didn't always take on their own appearance in dreams, Ia raised her gun and shot the men surrounding her. The train roared on, the gun never ran out of bullets, and the dreamer was not here. Okay then. Ia grabbed hold of a passing cloud, concentrated. It became solid under her hand. She climbed onto it, the cloud icy cold under her hands, and zoomed off.

-o-o-o-

"It's two in the morning," Miku said to herself as she stared at her computer. "It's two in the morning. I have school tomorrow." No matter how many times she said it, however, she was as resolutely awake as ever. With a sigh, Miku resigned herself. Maybe she shouldn't have had that drink of coffee after dinner, but her mother had just bought some new beans and, well, she was so enthusiastic about it Miku had to give it a try. What she discovered in the end was that no matter how good the beans were, she still hated the taste of coffee.

But coffee wasn't the only reason she was still awake. Half her mind was still fixated on that date she had with Luka, miles away. Even though the movie had broken, even though she ran into her friends by the end of it, that date confirmed everything. It had to, right? Luka had _kissed_ her. On the cheek, to be sure, but a kiss was still a kiss and Miku doubted that Luka ran around kissing people she saw as just friends, and Miku wasn't _that_ oblivious. It was as confirmed as it could ever be, a green light to go and...to go and what? Date a vampire?

Miku sighed and put her head on the desk. Vampire romances were common enough in fiction, but in reality, well, Miku didn't know. None of her classmates had ever dated a vampire, that was for certain. As for her parents...Miku felt a sinking in her gut. How could she even introduce Luka to them? It would be the most awkward thing. Her parents had assumed, like everyone else would, that Miku would date a nice, normal, human boy once she got into high school. If Miku was to show up with Luka in tow and introduce her as her nice, abnormal, vampiric girlfriend, well then. The bites on her neck, mostly healed over, itched and Miku closed her eyes, ran her fingers over the two slightly raised bumps. They tingled, and Miku shivered.

"Shit," she whispered, and raised her head to look at her phone.

-o-o-o-

The dream was thankfully very small - Ia had only been flying for about three minutes when she reached the end and the cloud wouldn't listen to her anymore. The dream was composed of a train going around in an endless circle, a tall tower, and a school. The rest were sketchy masses, artist's approximations of buildings. The mind could only create so many complete interiors and exteriors. If Yukari had been dreaming alone, the world would seem infinite. Now her mind had to accommodate two dreamers, and the dreamworld was stressed.

But that wasn't Ia's problem. She fired a few more bullets in the air. The gun went off smoothly. Infinite bullets. Since the only buildings with interiors are the tower and the school, Ia decided to start her search at the school. She hopped off the cloud and walked inside.

Once in, the school seemed to be comprised of a single long corridor, filled with people talking about irrelevancies. Ia walked down the halls, recognizing the school uniform. Based on reality, as expected. Probably the school Lily, Miku, and Yukari attended as well. Ia tried every door. All of them were locked save for the classroom at the end of the wall. Bingo. Ia took note of the classroom number - 1-Q - and slid it open.

There were five people in the room, all gathered by a desk near the window. Ia strode over, eyes flicking over each one. A girl with long blonde hair, another girl with teal twin-tails, a slightly older-looking woman with long pink hair, and the dreamer herself, Yukari. Ia paused and looked at the woman. She was the single outlier, not dressed in the school uniform. Strange.

"Hello," said Ia, hiding away her gun. "I'm new here. Are you all students?"

The blonde girl glanced at Ia and rolled her eyes. "Of course we are, why else would we be here?"

"Oh," said the twin-tailed girl, brightly, "are you a new transfer student?"

"Yes," said Ia with a smile. "I got lost and I wanted to be shown around. If I could have your names?"

"I don't see the harm in that," said the woman. "I'm Luka."

"Lily," the blonde volunteered.

"Miku!" said the twin-tailed girl. "And this is Yukari."

Yukari glanced at Ia before looking away. When she spoke, her voice was tiny. "Hi..."

"What's wrong, Yukari?" Miku said. "You aren't normally this shy."

"Do you go to this school?" Ia asked Luka.

Luka shrugged. "No. I'm just here to be here."

Ia decided not to question it. Dreams were strange. At any rate, despite getting sucked into the dream, Ia had gleaned a good amount of information already. The school, the classroom, the faces to match with the names...it was more than she had expected. Time for Yukari to wake up.

"Alright," said Ia, and she smiled at Yukari. "Thanks for the dream." She raised her gun and pulled the trigger.

There was only an empty click. Of course. The dreamer would try to protect themselves. Before Ia could do anything, Yukari jolted up to her feet and ran from the room like a startled rabbit.

"What's her problem, right?" Ia said, but everyone had fallen silent, staring at her dully. Now that Yukari was out of the room, the dream was no longer bothering to accommodate these manufactured personalities. Ia dropped the gun and gave chase. There was a loud ringing in the halls now, resembling the sound of a fire alarm. Ia pushed aside the dream-people, all of whom seemed to conspire to block her way. Yukari's head was barely visible through the crowd. Ia struggled to push through a pair of hefty male students. Yukari took a sharp right turn up some stairs that were not there before. Ia cursed under her breath and followed. The steps lengthened under her. Ia applied a burst of speed from a saved dream and jolted up the stairs.

On the second floor Ia found herself in a grocery store, full of aisles and shoppers. The ringing was still going on, each ring a deep, long drone. Ia ran down the aisles. Cans of tomato soup and cream of broccoli fell. Ia slipped, hit her face against the floor, got back up, met the bewildered eyes of a store assistant, and grabbed her by the sleeve.

"Excuse me," said Ia, "I'm looking for a lost child, a little taller than me, purple hair, name's Yukari Yuzuki, can you make an announcement?"

The assistant nodded, fumbled, and spoke over the intercom. "Yukari Yuzuki, please come to aisle six, your..uh...sister is looking for you..."

Ia hoped the dream was overwritten and that Yukari had forgotten entirely about Ia's appearance, and sure enough Yukari appeared in aisle six with an empty shopping cart.

"I have a sister?" said Yukari.

"No," said Ia. She grabbed a nearby x-acto knife, tore the packaging off, and lunged at Yukari. Yukari gasped and pushed the shopping cart towards Ia. It caught her mid-step and Ia fell back with an 'oof'.

"Oh my god," Ia muttered, climbing to her feet, "would you please just wake up already?"

-o-o-o-

After the third ring, Miku resigned herself to the fact that Yukari was probably sleeping. It was, after all, half past two in the morning, and she did just have her wendigo incident the other day. But talking about this kind of thing during school would be a little awkward. Slightly less now that Yukari, Lily, and Miku were all acquainted with vampires, but for Rin and Len things would probably be rather confusing.

There was another person she could call who would definitely be awake at this time. Miku ran down the list of names on her contacts, stopped at Luka. She hesitated. What would she even talk to Luka about? It was poor form to call someone right after a date too. Miku groaned. Maybe she should've read more of those supernatural romance novels Yukari was so enamored with. One more try, Miku thought. She scrolled up and dialed again.

-o-o-o-

Ia pressed her back against the wall, rifle close to her chest. The walls were thrumming with electronic beats and Ia adjusted her grip, peered around the wall. There was a dark shape. She fired. The dark shape cursed and Ia watched as its rifle turned red, signifying that it could not be used until the cooldown time was over. Ia abandoned cover and ran towards the two-story structure in the middle of the room, dodging fire.

"You're not supposed to run in laser tag," someone reprimanded her over the speakers.

Ia ignored it as she ran up the steps two at a time. Yukari had been sniping from this position for a while, a conclusion Ia arrived to solely because Yukari had been topping the leaderboard and whenever people tried to get close to the structure, they were shot down. Good thing Ia was a small target. Upon reaching the second level, where there was no Yukari but instead a circular hole in the wall, Ia dropped to her knees, crawled through the tube, and entered a room made entirely of wood. There was a loud ringing from far, far away, a milky underwater distance. Panting, Ia got up to her feet. Yukari was crouched in the corner, looking at something. There were absolutely no weapons to be found, and when Ia turned around, there was no exit. Nothing she could use save the window. Ia looked outside. The drop was fatal. She turned towards Yukari.

"Laser tag," said Ia. "Clever."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Yukari. "I'm building an airship."

Ia walked over, crouched, and saw that Yukari was fiddling with some controls set on the floor. "Cool. But it's time to wake up, sleepyhead."

"Like stars burning holes right through the dark," Yukari mumbled. "Flicking fire like saltwater into my eyes..."

Ia was silent for a few moments, and then she placed her hands over Yukari's thin neck. The blaring in the background grew louder. What _was_ that noise, anyways? It sounded like it was getting closer. Ia looked behind her. There was a missile coming through the window.

"Are you serious," said Ia, and then she woke up.

-o-o-o-

"Ah!" Yukari shot up in her bed, breathing heavily, eyes wide as she ran a hand through her messy hair. Her sheets were all tangled up and she looked around. Her window was open. Did she leave it like that? Her phone was blaring loudly and Yukari stared at it for a second, her mind struggling to come back to reality. Her heart was beating like a jackhammer, as though she had just come back from a long run, and Yukari rubbed the sleep from her eyes and answered it. 'Hello?"

"Hey, um, Yukari," said Miku. "Sorry. Did I wake you up?"

"Yeah...what is it?" Yukari yawned and pulled her knees up to her chest. "Something happen?"

"Oh...sorry," said Miku. "Um, I just couldn't sleep. Look," Miku's voice became hurried, "I don't know why I called, we can talk about this tomorrow, I'm really sorry-"

"Hey, wait," said Yukari, "now that I'm awake we might as well talk, right? It's no problem at all. I was having an awful dream anyways."

"Again?" Miku's voice instantly became alarmed. "Does it have anything to do with..."

"Oh, god, no, nothing like the wendigo," Yukari laughed. "It was just a normal nightmare, I think. I don't remember any of it."

"Well, if you say so," said Miku, not sounding reassured. "You've been having a lot of bad dreams lately. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," said Yukari. "So what's up?"

Miku hesitated. 'Well...it's about Luka..."

-o-o-o-

Hiding under the bed. Ia had been reduced to this. Hiding under the bed while someone gossiped with their friend on the phone. Great. Her ankle itched but Ia didn't dare move.

"Luka?" said Yukari, and at once Ia's ears perked. "What about Luka?"

Silence. Then, Yukari laughed.

"You worry way too much, Miku, seriously. You're a good friend and I love you but you think too much." Pause. "No. You're in high school, so it's okay." Another pause. "Really! I'm sure Luka would be a great girlfriend and besides, you two have been dragging this on for _way_ too long."

Ia rolled her eyes. Boring. At least now she knew that Miku had a thing with Luka, though, so the one closest to the vampires would definitely be Miku. Ia slowly dug in her pocket for her phone. The only contacts she had were Yuuma and SeeU. She opened a new text.

There was a 'thump' as Yukari's feet landed on the floor. Ia froze and placed her phone face down so that its backlit screen wouldn't give her away.

"No, I'm being serious," said Yukari. "It's not too fast. It's fine." Pause. "It doesn't have to be _now_, I'm just saying that you should totally go for it like soon." Yukari leaned down. Ia watched, heart hammering, as a hand came perilously close to her hiding place to pick up a book. "Anyways, that's my advice at least. Huh? Oh...I'm just cleaning stuff up now. I have books all over the place from when Luka fought the wendigo in my room."

Yukari's hand crept under the bed, evidently searching for some book. Ia located it and quickly slid it over to her hand.

"It's fine," said Yukari. "Really. I'm not even tired anymore."

_Oh my god,_ thought Ia, her heart sinking to her stomach. There was the soft plush sound of Yukari sitting on her beanbag chair.

"Don't worry about it," said Yukari. "I went to bed early today. You should go to sleep, though."

Ia wondered why the hell they were staying up so late. Don't these people have school tomorrow?

"Alright," said Yukari after a bit. "Night, Miku! See you tomorrow." There was the jingle of the phone ending a call, and then silence. The itching on Ia's ankle grew worse, but Ia pushed it from her mind. She could see Yukari tapping her feet on the floor from here, and Ia sent out mind signals - _go to sleep, go to sleep_ - to no avail. Yukari was not moving. Judging from where her feet were, if Ia was to make the slightest movement, she would be discovered. Fantastic.

The clock in Yukari's room ticked, agonizingly slow. _Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock._ Yukari showed no signs of moving. Maybe she was asleep? Still, Ia didn't dare to move. At the same time, Ia couldn't stay there until morning either - the light would definitely reveal her. Combined with how light her hair was, staying under the bed forever was not an option. Ia had to move. She searched through her album of dreams, but she had none of any concealment properties. As she searched, each dream became a little less potent, a little more decayed as her body consumed them. Ia bit her lip. What was Yukari doing?

It was an eternity later when Yukari sighed and got up. Ia watched her feet head over to the bookshelf. There was the smooth soft clunk of a novel being slid back into place before the bed creaked with Yukari's settled weight. Good. Now Ia could finally send that text. She grabbed her phone, opened up the text window again, and typed this in:

_miku closest to luka, luka vampire, vocalo high, classroom 1-Q_

She sent it, slid her phone shut, and stuffed it into her pocket. She listened. Yukari's breathing was smooth and regular. Now or never. Ia quickly slid out from under the bed and got up to her feet, brushing off the dust bunnies. Then, she heard a gasp.

Ia spun around and stared at Yukari's wide open and very awake eyes.

"Shit," said Ia at the same time Yukari screamed.


End file.
